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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES OF THIS VOLUME 
 HAVE BEEN PRINTED FOR MR. SMITH FOR PRESEN- 
 TATION TO FRIENDS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 THESE COPIES ARE PRINTED ON DIFFERENT PAPER, 
 AND ARE WITHOUT THE BIBLIOPHILE TITLES AND 
 SEAL. THE TYPE HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED. 
 
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CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 Etched by W. H. W. Bic knell from the sittdy (in oil) 
 
 by W R. Frithj in the collection of 
 
 Harry B . Smith. 
 


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 Copyright, 1910, by 
 
 THE BIBLIOPHILE SOCIETY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 ©ci.A265(ra 
 
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 By Henry H. Harper 
 
 At the time of the issue (in 1908) of the 
 volume of the Dickens-Beadnell Correspon- 
 dence, containing Professor Baker's footnote 
 calh'ng attention to another collection of early 
 Dickens letters that changed hands in Birming- 
 ham, England, about ten years ago, it was 
 hardly to be hoped or believed that within a 
 year these letters should be located here in 
 the United States, and in the hands of a gener- 
 ous Bibliophile, who not only expressed an 
 eager willingness to share their contents with 
 his fellow-booklovers, but also offered to edit 
 and arrange them for the press, which he has 
 done in a scholarly and highly entertaining 
 and instructive manner. Mr. Harry B. Smith, 
 of New York, the present owner of this collec- 
 tion of letters written by Dickens to his friend 
 Kolle, has in the following pages related by 
 what a narrow margin the Dickens-Beadnell 
 episode escaped being exploited in public 
 print before the advent of the recent Biblio- 
 phile edition of the letters from Dickens to 
 [vj 
 
Maria Beadnell-Winter. It will be remem- 
 bered that Kolle, in addition to looking after his 
 own interests in wooing a fair member of the 
 Beadnell household, served young Dickens 
 in the capacity of messenger in smuggling his 
 imploring love missives through the parental 
 barriers and into the hands of the coquettish 
 Maria, after Dickens had been debarred from 
 the Beadnell home, and even from communi- 
 cating with Miss Beadnell through the mail. 
 Nothing could better illustrate the corrobo- 
 rative character of these letters than the quota- 
 tion appearing on pages 13-1^. 
 
 Matters of an intimately personal nature 
 which disclose important facts and give a 
 clearer insight into the lives and characters of 
 those who are near and dear to us are always 
 interesting. Perhaps no author excels Dickens 
 in the ever-increasing number of admirers he 
 has made among the lovers of literature ; and 
 facts, therefore, which relate to and explain 
 the all-absorbing event of his life, and which, 
 according to his own confession to Mrs. 
 Winter, were the inceptive cause of his 
 famous career, cannot fail to be of interest. 
 Any new autobiographical material of this 
 nature may be justly regarded as a valuable 
 
 [vi] 
 
contribution to literature, and, as such, is 
 worthy of preservation in an enduring form. 
 There are a number of causes which co- 
 operate to make this series of letters of 
 unusual interest to readers of Dickens. Note- 
 worthy among its attractive features is the 
 facility with which Mr. Smith has brought 
 out the full significance of every point in its 
 relation to the principal episode, and to a 
 better knowledge of the character and early 
 struggles of the author. Letters, — which if 
 printed disconnectedly would appear incon- 
 sequential,— are carefully woven into the 
 complete fabric, and in the remarks interposed 
 by Mr. Smith their relative importance and 
 meanings— oftentimes more or less obscure 
 to the casual reader— are made so clear and 
 comprehensive as to render every letter an 
 important link in the story. It would have 
 been impossible for anyone other than a care- 
 ful student and admirer of Dickens to have 
 extracted from these letters and given to the 
 reader so much that is new, important and 
 interesting alike to readers and collectors of 
 that author's works. 
 
 Apart from its direct connection with the 
 contents of the Dickens-Beadnell volume, 
 
 [vii] 
 
this book has a distinct value of its own ; but 
 as a coincidental issue, each supplements and 
 lends interest to the other. 
 
 It appears inconceivable that the correspond- 
 ence of one so full of literary vitality and social 
 proclivities, as was Dickens in his youth and 
 early manhood, could have been confined to 
 one or two individuals. As reporter on a 
 London daily paper he was brought into daily 
 contact with all sorts of companionable men, 
 both young and old, and there must have 
 been others than Kolle with whom he was on 
 terms of equal intimacy, and with whom he 
 occasionally exchanged letters. Though not 
 born with a golden spoon in his mouth, 
 Dickens may be said to have been born with 
 a pen in his hand, which he kept almost 
 constantly in service. In his reportorial days 
 his acquaintance must have been widely ex- 
 tended, and in his biographies we find refer- 
 ences to his "many warm friends;" but 
 strangely enough, they reveal no names which 
 would ser\^e as a clue to definite facts with 
 regard to the formative period in the life of 
 the great novelist. Almost without exception 
 the writers of his memoirs jump abruptly 
 from the blacking warehouse experiences to 
 [ viii ] 
 
the period when as assistant and companion 
 to his father he was reporting the parliament- 
 ary debates for the Daily Chronicle. It is 
 not impossible that there still exists an un- 
 covered wealth of Dickensiana in the form of 
 early letters which may in due time come 
 before the public ; and yet it is easy to under- 
 stand why his early letters may have been 
 destroyed by those who received them, for the 
 reason that at that time no one suspected him 
 of undeveloped greatness, and even his closest 
 friends would not be likely to encumber their 
 files with his letters, which had no apparent 
 value. In fact it is a matter of astonishment 
 that any of them should have been preserved ; 
 hence the great value of the very few that are 
 known to exist. That the letters of a scorned 
 and rejected suitor should have been carefully 
 cherished by the frivolous girl to whom they 
 were addressed — and upon whom they seem 
 to have made no impression — is a miracle 
 bordering on the supernatural ; but now that 
 another group of contemporary letters bearing 
 directly upon the same affair has come to light, 
 the coincidence is so strange as to appear un- 
 real. Truth is indeed " stranger than tiction." 
 Even in the face of the contrary views of 
 
 [ix] 
 
Professor Baker, in the Dickens-Beadnell 
 Correspondence, and of Mr. Smith, in the 
 present volume, I am forced to adhere to my 
 former conviction that Mary Anne Leigh was 
 never in love with Dickens, and that the part 
 she acted in "throwing herself in his way" 
 was prompted only by one of two purposes : 
 either that she herself wished to experience 
 the sensation of toying with the ardent young 
 lover at the end of her line, or else that, in the 
 interest of her friend, she was merely endeavor- 
 ing to provide for her the usual excuse of a 
 clever coquette when trying to shake off a 
 suitor of whom she has grown tired. Young 
 Dickens was too devoutly in love with Maria 
 Beadnell to become interested in any other 
 flirt, and he refused to be shaken off so easily. 
 Determination was always his strong suit, and 
 it is gratifying to know that it won for him in 
 literature what it failed to accomplish in love- 
 making. Mr. Smith points out the fact that 
 Miss Leigh was a cleverer girl than Maria 
 Beadnell, which only confirms the view that 
 she would not have allowed herself to indulge 
 in anything more serious than a sham flirtation 
 with an unpromising youth whom her friend 
 and companion was doing her best to get rid 
 
 [X] 
 
of. A clever young lady of Miss Leigh's type 
 is not usually found playing second fiddle to 
 one of inferior accomplishments, in the pursuit 
 of a rejected lover. Mr. Smith thinks that 
 Maria Beadnell's coldness may have been due 
 to " Dickens' attentions to Mary Anne Leigh." 
 If Miss Beadnell had seriously cared for 
 Dickens, the fact that her friend was trying to 
 win him away from her would have caused 
 her to redouble her efforts to hold him, instead 
 of " freezing " him out ; and in addition, 
 would perhaps have broken off the friendship 
 between the two girls. Mr. Smith admits 
 that the girls probably got together and had a 
 good laugh at Dickens' expense after it was 
 all over. However, differences of opinion 
 must always exist, and after all perhaps it is 
 best merely to present the facts and leave the 
 judicial functions to the reader. Therefore, 
 in the language of the lawyer, I rest the case 
 on the evidence. 
 
 fxi 
 
FAtsiMiiK ..K I'EN. 11. sKKRH >>r < HARl.ES UKKKN.S.— 
 
 HKRKIOKORK IMM BI.ISHHU. 
 
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 w. 
 
THE DICKENS-KOLLE LETTERS 
 
 Edited by HARRY B. SMITH 
 
 In that valuable contribution to modern biog- 
 raphy, Charles Dickens and Maria Beadnell. 
 Private Correspondence, Professor George 
 Pierce^ Baker, who performed the editorial 
 work in a manner deserving the gratitude of 
 every lover of Dickens, remarks : — 
 
 "It is reported that some ten years ago a 
 series of letters from Dickens to the friend of 
 his youth, Henry Kolle, changed hands in Bir- 
 mingham, England. The present editor hopes 
 that the publication of the letters in this book 
 may bring this set to light, for they should 
 supplement and explain the letters here given." 
 The letters referred to by Professor Baker 
 are those contained in the present volume. 
 They were unknown to Forster, who ignores 
 Kolle even as he disregards several other close 
 friends of Dickens. In some instances Forster 
 quarreled with men who were known and 
 
 [ij 
 
liked by his great friend, and this led to the 
 omission of their names from the biography ; 
 though this was not the case with Kolle, 
 whose intimacy with Dickens ceased at about 
 the time the famous friendship with Forster 
 began. No reference is made to Kolle by 
 either James Payn or Robert Langton in the 
 monographs on Dickens' early life. This cor- 
 respondence, however, tells its own story of 
 confidence and comradeship. 
 
 It cannot be claimed for the letters in the 
 present volume that they equal the Beadnell 
 correspondence in emotional sentiment or in 
 what may be called dramatic interest. In 
 these qualities the letters to Miss Beadnell 
 (and later to Mrs. Winter) probably surpass 
 any series ever written by Dickens, though 
 there are many single examples equally vital 
 and self-revealing. Such, for instance, are the 
 ones which Dickens wrote at the culmination of 
 his domestic infelicities, — those strange let- 
 ters which tended to destroy " the greatest of 
 Dickens' fictions — himself." Most of these 
 are unpublished, and some are to be found in 
 American collections. 
 
 The correspondence with Kolle, it is thought, 
 has a distinct interest of its own and contrib- 
 
 [2] 
 
utes something to Dickens' biography, although 
 it gives a sketch of a period rather than the 
 complete chapter supplied by the Beadnell 
 group. Some of the present series are the 
 earliest known letters of Dickens ; others have 
 a direct connection with the love affair with 
 Maria Beadnell ; many of them, in a few sen- 
 tences, give a more graphic idea of the life of 
 the author as a young man than any corre- 
 spondence or reminiscences yet published. 
 They are redolent of the joys and dreams of 
 youth and not untinged by its occasional sad- 
 ness. The first of the letters was written in 
 18^0; the last of the early series in 18^^. 
 After the latter date Dickens and Kolle, for 
 twenty-five years, held little if any communi- 
 cation. In 18^9, four years after the reappear- 
 ance of Maria Beadnell, Kolle wrote to his old 
 friend, and again in 186^. The novelist's an- 
 swers to these two later letters form a part of 
 the present collection. 
 
 Of Dickens after the "Pickwick" period 
 the biographical information is as complete 
 as the most exacting specialist could wish. 
 Of the innumerable volumes of mid-Victorian 
 Memoirs and Reminiscences of " people of im- 
 portance in their day," a large number make 
 [31 
 
their contribution of side-lights and anecdote. 
 Of Dickens and his family in the period 
 between the blacking warehouse and the 
 Sketches by Bo{, comparatively little is known. 
 Among the published letters there is but 
 one written during his days of newspaper 
 reporting. It is believed that the corre- 
 spondence, now for the first time printed, 
 adds to our knowledge of Dickens as a youth 
 in that interesting period when he was emerg- 
 ing from obscurity and coming into his own. 
 An English critic, who is much cleverer than 
 a mere critic has any right to be, has thought 
 it worth his while, at this late day^ to devote 
 a book to an appreciation of Dickens. In this 
 work Mr. Chesterton declares that " whatever 
 the word ' great ' means, Dickens is that." It 
 might be added that whatever the word " pop- 
 ular" means Dickens is that also. Popular 
 he has been continuously from the publication 
 of the Sketches by Bo{ to the present day. 
 There have been at all times critics hostile to 
 his novels and people who have declared that 
 they could not read Dickens ; but their minor- 
 ity report has generally taken the form of a 
 protest against his acknowledged popularity. 
 During the year 1906, a single London 
 [4] 
 
publishing house sold four hundred and fifty 
 thousand copies of novels by Dickens, and it 
 has been estimated that in that year fifteen 
 hundred thousand copies of his books were 
 sold in England alone. It is probable that as 
 many more were sold in the United States, 
 Canada and Australia, and it is within bounds 
 to say that the annual sales of the Dickens 
 novels amount to three millions of copies. 
 About three hundred and fifty articles dealing 
 with Charles Dickens and his writings are 
 published in magazines and newspapers every 
 year. An incomplete collection of these in 
 the Guildhall Library numbers over ten thou- 
 sand items. Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, starting to 
 collect all the printed matter relating to 
 ''Pickwick" alone, soon found that he had 
 " nearly a roomful." A magazine is devoted to 
 Dickens literature, clubs and fellowships are 
 organized in his honor, and the library of 
 Dickensiana is beginning to rival in extent the 
 literature of Shakespear and Napoleon.^ 
 Dickens' principal works have been trans- 
 
 1 In 1838, "Pickwick" was attacked by tlie Quarterly Review 
 whicii declared that " indications were not wanting that the peculiar 
 vein of humor which has hitherto yielded such attractive metal, is 
 worn out." When this was written by an eminent critical author- 
 ity, Dickens had published nothing but the Sketches by Bo^. 
 
 [5] 
 
lated into every European language. He is 
 read by all sorts and conditions of men, 
 women and children. Lord Jeffreys, Charles 
 Lever, and Walter Savage Landor wept over 
 Little Nell (though Mr. Andrew Lang makes 
 merry over her). Lever declared Dickens to be 
 " the greatest imaginative writer since Shake- 
 spear," and Mr. Chesterton, most modern of 
 critics, also corroborates this in a way when 
 he says that claiming to have contributed 
 an idea to Dickens is like saying one has 
 added a glass of water to Niagara. Swin- 
 burne, who was nothing if not fastidious, 
 wrote an almost rhapsodical defense of Dick- 
 ens against his academic detractors. The 
 shop-girl on her way to work is quite as likely 
 to be reading Copperfield as Laura Jean. The 
 messenger boy taking his time with a " rush " 
 message, if not enthralled by Old Sleuth, is 
 probably delayed by Oliver Twist. At least a 
 dozen times the writer has seen elevator boys 
 reading Dickens. Once — in Boston — one 
 was observed reading Thackeray. 
 
 It is a proof of the universal appeal of Dick- 
 ens that he not only has this vogue with the 
 masses, but is also pre-eminently a collector's 
 author. Judging from observation and from 
 
 [6] 
 
information supplied by book-sellers, it may 
 be confidently stated that fully nine-tenths of 
 the collectors of modern books collect first 
 editions of Dickens. The name of "Boz" 
 may not lead all the rest, but it is pretty sure 
 to be upon the scroll, whether the collector be 
 a Tennysonian or a Shelleyan, a disciple of St. 
 Charles or a devotee of the Brownings. 
 
 The fact is that if one is interested in mod- 
 ern literature at all, and has any of the in- 
 stincts of a collector, he can hardly escape 
 being a Dickensian. This is particularly true 
 for the reason that book-collectors, in spite of 
 their reputation for solemnity, are a race of 
 humorists. Reference is made to the collect- 
 ors of modern books, not to those who are on 
 the passenger list of Brandt's Ship of Fools, 
 who buy books which they cannot read. In- 
 deed if one must have an answer for the 
 Philistine's question, '' Why first editions?'' 
 one can find it readily in the case of the Dick- 
 ens books. Apart from the unique form in 
 which they were published, the illustrations 
 as they first appeared make these editions in- 
 finitely more desirable than any de luxe vol- 
 umes ever printed for the delusion of the unco 
 rich. 
 
 [7] 
 
Perhaps next to Lamb, Dickens as a person- 
 ality is the most lovable of authors. We love 
 Elia in spite of — nay, because of — his pecu- 
 liarities and his little vices ; and as we grow to 
 know Dickens through the study of his works, 
 his letters, and the many books about him, we 
 love him in spite of the defects in his character, 
 without which he would be a demigod in- 
 stead of the hearty, human, friendly creature 
 he is. Loving Dickens as we do, feeling that 
 we know him better than we know many of 
 our friends, any news out of shadow-land is 
 welcome when it can tell us anything of the 
 man that brings him nearer to us. For this 
 reason the printing of the Dickens-Beadnell 
 letters was an event of importance to all ad- 
 mirers of the novelist and all readers of biog- 
 raphy, — more vivid and suggestive perhaps 
 than any one chapter in that indispensable 
 biography which has been rudely called Dick- 
 ens' Life of Forster. 
 
 The earliest known autograph of Charles 
 Dickens is a note written in his thirteenth 
 year to Owen P. Thomas, his classmate at 
 Wellington House Academy. This note would 
 have been a formidable weapon in the hand 
 of Sergeant Buzfuz, who could have read into 
 
 [8] 
 
it crime and conspiracy, even as he interpreted 
 the famous " warming-pan " letter as evidence 
 of deh'berate and systematic villainy. To the 
 unsuspicious non-legal mind, however, the 
 note indicates nothing worse than juvenile 
 humor and an eye to business. It begins 
 with an apology for neglecting to return 
 Owen Thomas' "Leg," the writer supposing 
 that in the interim Owen has " used a wooden 
 one." Dickens assures his friend that since 
 it has been in his possession " the leg has 
 been weighed every Saturday night ; " and the 
 note concludes with an offer to sell a school- 
 book " at a greatly reduced price, much cheaper 
 in comparison than a leg." 
 
 What an opportunity for the redoubtable 
 Buzfuz ! 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, I ask you, as hus- 
 bands and fathers, what is this youthful des- 
 perado doing with his comrade's leg? By 
 what dark deed did he possess himself of that 
 graceful member of which each one of us 
 poor mortals claims his allotted share of two ? 
 And — mark you — why should this Dickens, 
 with a depravity appalling in one so young, go 
 through the wretched form of weighing his 
 wronged friend's leg every Saturday night? 
 
 [9J 
 
Gentlemen, the brain reels, the mind is baffled 
 in the presence of such mysteries as these." 
 
 Mr. Thomas, writing in 1870, explained 
 that the " Leg " was *' a legend of something, 
 a pamphlet romance I had lent him." But the 
 Buzfuzzian mind would have shattered this 
 shallow explanation. Why should a " legend 
 of something" be weighed every Saturday 
 night ? As Forster says, " There is some 
 underlying whim or fun in the * Leg' allusions 
 which Mr. Thomas has overlooked." 
 
 The next writing in order of date is found 
 in a " petty cash book " kept by Dickens 
 when, at the age of fifteen, he was employed 
 in the office of Mr. Edward Blackmore, So- 
 licitor, of Lincoln's Inn Fields. This interest- 
 ing memento was in the collection of Mr. 
 William Wright, dispersed at auction in 1899. 
 Among the entries in Dickens' hand is the 
 charge to himself of a weekly salary of thir- 
 teen shillings and sixpence. Many years after- 
 ward Mr. Blackmore recorded his memories of 
 young Dickens, who it appears was not too 
 assiduous in his routine of office duties, but 
 inclined to waste time at theatres, where, with 
 a fellow clerk named Potter, he was even sus- 
 pected of " going on " in minor parts. It is 
 
 [10] 
 
highly probable that he did so, as the Sketches 
 by Bo{ show a familiarity with h'fe behind the 
 scenes which could have been obtained only 
 by experience. It is curious to note that in 
 this old account book, kept by Dickens in his 
 fifteenth year, are several names which were 
 afterward used by him for characters in his 
 novels. 
 
 In editing the Dickens - Beadnell corre- 
 spondence for The Bibliophile Society, Pro- 
 fessor Baker refers to the scarcity of early 
 letters of Dickens. Until the discovery of the 
 letters to Miss Beadnell, only four letters prior 
 to 18^6 were published, and these were of no 
 great interest. The Beadnell correspondence 
 belongs to the year 1833, while several of the 
 letters in the present volume were written in 
 1830 and 1831. These are believed to be 
 the earliest Dickens letters in existence. That 
 still earlier ones may be discovered is pos- 
 sible, but hardly probable. There may lurk 
 in some dusty drawer or closet in an old 
 London house the letters that Dickens wrote 
 to his fellow clerk, the facetious and frolic- 
 some Potter, companion of his secret ad- 
 ventures among the cheap theatres. There 
 may be in existence notes written to his 
 [11] 
 
schoolmates at Wellington House. Possibly 
 some early letters to members of his family 
 may have been preserved. Of autographs of 
 a somewhat later date (18H-183^) there may 
 be future discoveries. In 18M or 183^ Dick- 
 ens became acquainted with the Hogarth fam- 
 ily, and he undoubtedly wrote letters to Miss 
 Catherine Hogarth, his betrothed, and to her 
 sisters. He must have written occasionally 
 to Thomas Beard, who was best man at his 
 wedding, and who seems to have become his 
 chum after Kolle's marriage. 
 
 It is likely, however, that Dickens collectors 
 have come to the end of their treasure trove. 
 In 1870 the editors of the published corre- 
 spondence were able to obtain no early letters, 
 and of late years the agents of London book- 
 sellers and autograph dealers have made dili- 
 gent search without finding any material of 
 value. After the publication of the Sketches 
 by ^o{, Dickens became a personage, and his 
 correspondents were more inclined to preserve 
 his letters. Specimens written in 1836 and 
 1837 are occasionally met with, though they 
 are by no means common. 
 
 Shortly before the appearance of The Biblio- 
 phile Society's volume, Charles Dickens and 
 
 [12] 
 
Maria Beadnell, the present writer prepared for 
 a magazine an article regarding the Dickens- 
 Kolle correspondence/ At that time he was 
 not acquainted with the contents of the Bead- 
 nell letters and was compelled to guess and 
 theorize regarding much that is in the Kolle 
 correspondence. A portion of the article thus 
 written is here quoted: — 
 
 " The chief interest in the Dickens-Kolle 
 correspondence is the light thrown upon an 
 early love affair. Dickens was under twenty 
 at the time ; yet this was no ordinary boyish 
 flirtation, but an enduring love. The writings 
 of later years, the confidences to Mr. Forster, 
 contain so many references to this early ro- 
 mance that it must be considered, like the 
 death of Mary Hogarth, an event that had 
 a life-long influence upon the mind of the 
 author and the heart of the man. The iden- 
 tity of this first love, this real Dora, is now 
 revealed. She was one of the two^ Misses 
 Beadnell. . Kolle was engaged to the elder ; 
 Dickiens fell desperately in love with the 
 younger. Kolle's suit prospered ; but that of 
 
 ^ This article was not publisiied, — it having been bought back 
 from the magazine to which it was sold, —-and is here printed in 
 part for the first time. 
 
 2 There were three,— Anne, Margaret, and Maria. 
 
 [13] 
 
Dickens was an example of the proverbial 
 roughness of the course of true love. The 
 father of Miss Beadnell was well-to-do, and 
 it is more than likely that the parents did not 
 view with approval the courtship of a young 
 reporter with a small salary and no prospects 
 worth mentioning. Kolle, however, was the 
 typical young man bound to make his way in 
 the world ; he was employed in a bank. It is 
 clear that Dickens was looked upon as a party 
 whom Mrs. Malaprop would have classified as 
 'illegible.' The letters indicate that at the 
 Beadnell home he was unwelcome, and that 
 when he found his room was preferred to his 
 company, he called upon the favored Kolle to 
 serve as letter-carrier and intercessor. ... It 
 is quite evident that Dickens sent by Kolle a 
 written proposal of marriage to Miss Beadnell. 
 Delivered on a Saturday, this proposal was not 
 answered till the following Thursday. Doubt- 
 less the Dulcinea was deliberating, deciding 
 whether a rebellion against parental authority 
 were worth while. It is likely that she had 
 some fondness for the young man who was 
 in every way attractive ; but she was older 
 than Dickens, as he admits in one of his later 
 allusions to her, and she was made prudent 
 
 [14] 
 
by reflecting upon his financial situation. A 
 second appeal, or events following upon it, 
 resulted in a misunderstanding. Dickens at- 
 tributes this to envious tongues. Mischief 
 had been made and Lady Sneerwell had been 
 at work. One of Miss Beadnell's friends, a 
 Miss Marianne Leigh, was a cause of jealousy 
 and disputes. . . ." 
 
 It will be seen that the letters to Kolle sup- 
 plied a fairly accurate key to the then unpub- 
 lished Beadnell correspondence. 
 
 The collector's history of these autographs is 
 as follows : It will be remembered that William 
 Henry Kolle married Anne Beadnell, sister of 
 Dickens' inamorata. Mrs. Kolle died, and the 
 widower married again. Kolle died in 1881. 
 In February, 1890, his widow offered for sale to 
 a London dealer the letters written by Dickens 
 to her husband. They were promptly pur- 
 chased, and in response to the dealer's request 
 for information concerning them, Mrs. Kolle 
 wrote : — 
 
 West Brighton, 
 February 12, 1890. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge, with thanks, re- 
 ceipt of postal orders, and I am most willing to answer 
 >our inquiries. My husband prized the letters highly in 
 remembrance of his youthful friendship with Charles 
 [15] 
 
Dickens. He always kept them locked up in a drawer 
 to which even I had not access till after his death nine 
 years ago. They remained in the same drawer un- 
 touched until about three weeks ago, when I perused 
 them for the first time, and it occurred to me that as 
 autographs they might be worth money — as you phrased 
 it — and so 1 got the idea of sending them to an auto- 
 graph sale, but your offer altered this project. My hus- 
 band and C. Dickens first met at the house of a mutual 
 friend, became attached to two sisters of the name of 
 Beadnell, and so the intimacy commenced. My husband 
 was at that time engaged in a banking house in the city, 
 but soon after his first marriage entered into commercial 
 pursuits. C. Dickens, as everyone knows, was strug- 
 gling for fame as an author, and so the friends diverged 
 into different lines of life, but the old kind feelings still 
 existed, as you will see by two letters which I enclose for 
 your perusal, and which my step-daughter, whom you 
 saw the other evening, prizes " above rubies," although 
 they dashed her hopes of becoming a poetess. Please 
 take great care of the two letters which I have borrowed, 
 as my daughter does not wish them creased unnecessarily. 
 ... My husband assisted on one or two occasions at 
 some private amateur theatricals in the house of the 
 elder Mr. Dickens. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 S. J. ROLLE 
 
 There was some further correspondence be- 
 tween the London dealer and Mrs. Kolle, and 
 eventually Miss Anne Kolle (named after her 
 [16] 
 
mother, Anne Beadnell) sold the two later 
 letters addressed by Dickens to her father. 
 Immediately after concluding the purchase of 
 the collection, the book-seller sent a descrip- 
 tion of the contents to the late Augustin Daly 
 and offered them to him. Mr. Daly purchased 
 them and had them bound in a folio volume 
 together with a miscellaneous collection of 
 autograph letters of literary celebrities. There 
 was no attempt at classifying the contents 
 and the volume bore no descriptive title. 
 
 It may be doubted whether Mr. Daly him- 
 self knew or appreciated the prize he had ac- 
 quired ; for, although he took a lively interest 
 in his collection, he had such quantities of 
 letters, books, and prints, that to have known 
 and loved them all would have left him no 
 time for the exacting and multifarious duties 
 of a theatrical manager. In fact, Mr. Daly 
 once laughingly admitted to the writer that he 
 did not know what he had. He was, perhaps 
 more interested in collecting than in his col- 
 lection, in the chase than in the quarry. Mr. 
 Daly acquired the Dickens-Kolle letters in 
 1890. In March, 1900, the Daly collection 
 was sold at auction in New York. The de- 
 scription in the catalogue of the volume con- 
 
 [17] 
 
taining the Kolle letters gave no indication of 
 the unique interest of the correspondence and 
 the book sold for a moderate price. 
 
 The letter of the London dealer oflfering the 
 autographs to Mr. Daly was a part of the 
 " lot " and in it the number of the letters to 
 Kolle is distinctly stated to be twenty-five. 
 Of these, twenty-three were described as early 
 letters and the other two as dated 18^9 and 
 186^. When the volume appeared in the 
 auction room it contained but twenty-one of 
 the early letters. Two of them had mysteri- 
 ously disappeared, nor was there any evidence 
 of their having been in the book at any time. 
 What has become of them? Mr. Daly had 
 several extra-illustrated volumes of Dickens- 
 iana. Some of these contained a considerable 
 number of Dickens' autograph letters. He 
 employed a specialist to do his extra-illustrat- 
 ing, the selecting and preparing of material. 
 The Kolle letters were delivered to Mr. Daly 
 in their original condition, not bound in book 
 form. It is quite likely that in choosing the 
 material for some extra-illustrated work, like 
 the Daly copy of Forster's Life, the two 
 letters now missing were included as speci- 
 mens of an early period. It might be worth 
 [18] 
 
while for the possessors of some of the extra- 
 illustrated books from the Daly collection to 
 examine their contents carefully with a view 
 to detecting these missing autographic links. 
 The hope expressed by Professor Baker that 
 the publication of the Beadnell correspondence 
 might reveal the letters to Kolle is echoed here 
 with regard to these two wandering missives. 
 
 Like the early Beadnell letters, those of 
 Dickens to Kolle, with one exception, bear no 
 date, only the day of the week. The one ex- 
 ception is dated January ^, 1833. Two of the 
 letters are postmarked 1833. The water- 
 marks on several are I830 and I831. The 
 date of the one letter and the postmarks on 
 the two are important, as they prove that 
 most of the other letters were written before 
 January S, 1833. 
 
 The verses, The Bill of Fare, printed in the 
 Beadnell correspondence, fix exactly the month 
 and the year in which Dickens fell in love 
 with Maria Beadnell. That the verses were 
 written in I831 is shown by the reference to 
 the marriage of David Lloyd and Margaret 
 Beadnell, which occurred in April, I83I. That 
 it was in the autumn or winter of I831 is 
 shown by the lines speaking of Lloyd: — 
 
 [19] 
 
That when he last summer from Paris came home 
 (I think 't was his marriage induced him to roam). 
 
 In the poem Dickens says of himself, — 
 
 Charles Dickens, who in our feast plays a part, 
 Is a young summer cabbage without any heart ; — 
 Not that he 's heartless, but because, as folks say, 
 He lost his twelve months ago from last May. 
 
 *' Twelve months ago from last May " would 
 mean May, 1830. In this manner Dickens 
 himself fixes, beyond reasonable doubt, the 
 date of his conquest by Dora/ 
 
 In his letter to John Forster in 18^^, in an- 
 swer to the latter's questioning the existence 
 of a Dora in real life, the novelist states that 
 his love for the original Dora began " when I 
 was Charley's age " and *' excluded every other 
 idea from my mind for four years." As Miss 
 Beadnell finally rejected Dickens in May, 1833, 
 and as he admits that he lost his heart to her 
 in May 1830, this allows a twelvemonth for 
 recovery from the blow that was so decidedly 
 a blessing in disguise. It is unlikely that 
 Dickens' own evidence in the poem and in 
 his letter to Forster is inexact. The love af- 
 
 1 Forster gives 1829 as the date of the first appearance of the 
 "real Dora." Vol. I, 71. 
 
 [20] 
 
fair was too important an event in his life for 
 him to be in doubt — even twenty years later 
 — whether it lasted four years or three. The 
 poem, Tbe Bill of Fare, obviously was writ- 
 ten to impress Maria Beadnell, to express his 
 devotion in a manner which, if regarded as 
 too bold, could be passed off as a jest, and in- 
 cidentally to show her and her friends that he 
 was a clever fellow. By mentioning the time, 
 " twelve months ago from last May," Dickens 
 may have intended to tell Maria that he had 
 fallen in love with her at first sight, as they 
 may have met for the first time during that 
 month. At all events, it is not likely that he 
 had known her more than a month or two 
 before losing his heart. He was eighteen 
 years old and even more impulsive and im- 
 pressionable than most youths of that age. 
 It is practically certain that Dickens was in- 
 troduced to the Beadnell family at some time 
 between January and May, 1830. In all prob- 
 ability, he met the Beadnells through KoIIe. 
 The letter of Mrs. S. J. Kolle indicates that 
 her husband and Dickens met at the house of 
 a common friend and afterward became ac- 
 quainted with the Beadnell family. Mrs. 
 Kolle states that her husband was at that time 
 
 [21] 
 
" engaged in a banking house in the city, but 
 soon after his first marriage entered into com- 
 mercial pursuits ; " that is to say, he became a 
 quilt-printer. With what bank young Kolle 
 was connected is not ascertainable, but it is 
 quite likely that he was a clerk in the establish- 
 ment of Smith, Payne and Smith, in which 
 George Beadnell held a responsible position. 
 The letters to Kolle furnish evidence that 
 the two young men first met in the spring of 
 1830, and the two letters following may be 
 ascribed to that date. Dickens could not have 
 known Kolle for any length of time, for in 
 both letters he misspells the name of his new 
 friend, writing it with a terminal " ie." This 
 might be regarded as a nickname or a playful 
 version of the name, were it not for the fact 
 that both these letters are written in a com- 
 paratively formal style, while, as the others of 
 the series become more familiar and indicate 
 intimate friendship, Kolle's name is correctly 
 written. In these two letters the handwriting 
 is considerably more unformed and juvenile 
 than in those known to have been written in 
 1832 and 1833. It is, in fact, quite a boyish 
 hand. That these were not written earlier 
 than the spring of 1830 is shown by Dickens' 
 
 [22] 
 
i ' ■ 
 
 J K ^ 
 
 , ^ A 
 
 
 /^ 
 
 
 ^ \ ^ ^s ^ 
 

 
 C ^..^ ^-^ -''^'^^ "'"^ 
 
 
 /«5u 
 
 <% 
 
 .y/(^^,^/t^^^~ ^^-^A. /i^ y yt^^ 
 
 y 
 
l>^^ 1/ Crtca.^^^- 
 
 / 
 
 Cl ^C /c^.-€c /f U I 
 
 / 
 
 
 * /'t-^x.t/' ^-e'/^ 
 
 y 
 
 ^tcc^^A^.^ ^? Ly^'-^'y^yO-Cu~^c/:. ^ y ^yf 
 
 ^A tr /ix ct 
 
 
 
 kr^ 
 
 y-f (L^-^ 
 
 ^*-<^( C r^. 
 
 
 ^C(L 
 
 
 ^l^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 A' 
 
 r C^ 
 
 
 
 

 ■^^^ C<^^^r--et_^ . t/ y^L-^UL P^y^^i-c/ ^>^t-^ J- 
 
 ■//-'' 
 
 
 V 
 X 
 
 
 • / 
 
statement that he can name no night to go 
 out to play "until the House is up." The 
 novelist himself is the authority for the state- 
 ment that he entered the reporters' gallery 
 "when not yet 18." There are two veiled 
 allusions to the Beadnell family. In one letter 
 Dickens expresses his envy of Kolle's devotions 
 [to Anne Beadnell] and in the other he sends 
 his " best remembrances to (?) ; " the interroga- 
 tion point being a cryptic reference to Maria 
 Beadnell. The allusion to the poor accommo- 
 dations at Cecil street also points to the date 
 1830. The following letter, being the more 
 formal in expression, is probably the earlier of 
 the two. It is the earliest Dickens letter known, 
 with the single exception of the schoolboy 
 note written at Wellington House Academy. — 
 
 My dear Kollie, — I owe you ten thousand apologies 
 for not having seen you last night, but the fact is that 1 
 found out late in the evening that I could not leave the 
 House until a quarter past ten, and I thought it would be 
 useless to endeavor to make my way into the city at that 
 hour. As I was not aware of the melancholy fact in suf- 
 ficient time to send for you (I mean to you, but I do not 
 like scratching out) I hope I need not ask you to excuse the 
 apparent inattention on my part. It is equally unneces- 
 sary to add that 1 was very much disappointed, as 1 looked 
 forward to having a very comfortable couple of hours. 
 [23] 
 
I fear, until the House is up, I can name no certain 
 night on which I can go to play, except Saturday. How- 
 ever, I leave the selection of another day to your taste, 
 always promising that if I accept your next invitation, no 
 consideration shall induce me to depart from it. 
 
 With my best remembrances to (?), believe me, my 
 
 dear KoUie, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 I see there are two superfluous I's in this note, but I sup- 
 pose you are not particular to a shade. The sun is so 
 obscured that I intend living under the planet no longer 
 than Saturday week next. 
 
 It will be observed that the tone of the note 
 is rather formal and apologetic. The writer 
 regrets his failure to keep an appointment; 
 explains a slip in expression and a superabun- 
 dance of capital I's. It is possible, of course, 
 that the " best remembrances to (?) " may not 
 refer to Maria Beadnell ; but if, as seems cer- 
 tain, the letter was written in the spring of 
 1830, it is more than likely that the allusion is 
 to the young woman to whom Dickens, by his 
 own confession, lost his heart in the May of 
 that year. The next letter was written a few 
 days later. In this also Kolle's name is incor- 
 rectly spelled. Of the place from which this 
 was written, North End, Mr. F. G. Kitton 
 
 [24] 
 
says : " Certain letters written to an intimate 
 friend indicate such addresses as North End 
 (? Fulham) and Fitzroy street." The letter 
 following — which is the one to which Mr. 
 Kitton refers — was apparently written while 
 Dickens was enjoying a holiday. The whole 
 tone of it indicates that he has no business 
 cares to prevent his enjoying himself in his 
 own way. That it was written while on a 
 vacation is shown, too, by the fact that the 
 writer speaks of having left one place of resi- 
 dence and not yet having " fixed upon ' a local 
 habitation and a name 1 ' " 
 
 North End, 
 Friday evening'. 
 
 My dear Kollie, — I have great pleasure in being able 
 to assure you that I shall be perfectly disengaged on Sun- 
 day next, and shall expect you. I always rise out here 
 by seven, and therefore you may safely wend your way 
 here before one, if you can. 
 
 In reply to your inquiry respecting a sizable pony, I 
 have great satisfaction in being able to say^that I can pro- 
 cure you an " 'oss " which I have had once or twice since 
 I have been here. I am a poor judge of distance, but I 
 should certainly say that your legs would be off the 
 ground when you are on his back. To look at the ani- 
 mal in question you would think (with the exception of 
 dog's meat) there was no earthly purpose to which he 
 could be applied. But when you try him, joking apart, 
 [25] 
 
I will pledge you my veracity, he will beat any horse, 
 hired or private, that you would see in a morning's ride. 
 I am his especial patron, but on this occasion I will pro- 
 cure something smaller for myself. 
 
 Pray come before one, as 1 shall order them to be at 
 the door punctually at that hour, and we can mount, dis- 
 mount, and ride eight or ten miles without seeing a soul, 
 the peasantry excepted. 
 
 The people at Cecil street put too much water in their 
 hashes, lost a nutmeg grater, attended on me most mis- 
 erably, dirted the table cloth, &c., &c. ; and so (detesting 
 petty miseries) I gave them warning and have not yet 
 fixed upon a "local habitation and a name." 
 
 Envying you your devotions, notwithstanding the pil- 
 grimage attendant thereon, and wishing you every suc- 
 cess and happiness, I remain, my dear Kollie, 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 Come early. Charles Dickens 
 
 [P. S.] I shall depend on your staying all night. You 
 shall have breakfast by half past seven next morning, as 
 I must walk to town the very first thing. 
 
 C. D. 
 
 The paragraph preceding the signature al- 
 ludes to Kolle's courtship of Anne Beadnell, 
 and Dickens' envy was due to his growing 
 admiration for her sister, which was already 
 an object of parental disapproval. In the pen 
 portrait of the " sizable pony " there is a sug- 
 gestion of the gift for humorous description 
 
 [26] 
 
which was soon to find expression in the 
 Sketches by Bo{. Indeed, it may be surmised 
 that the animal was the model for the " im- 
 mense brown horse displaying great symmetry 
 of bone" which caused such annoyance to 
 Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Winkle during their 
 memorable journey to Dingley Dell. 
 
 Next in the series, in order of date, are six 
 letters written from Fitzroy street. These are 
 without date by the writer, but the year in 
 which they were written can be fixed with tol- 
 erable accuracy. In the case of three of the 
 letters the paper bears the water-mark of 1850. 
 The address Fitzroy street helps to establish 
 the date. Thanks to the researches of enthusi- 
 astic Dickensians, and particularly to the zeal 
 of the late F. G. Kitton, the various places of 
 residence of Dickens and his family may be 
 accurately traced by anyone curious in such 
 matters. For the sake of assigning these let- 
 ters to their correct year, and for the better 
 realization of the circumstances under which 
 they were written, one may briefly recapitulate 
 the principal events in this period of the life 
 of Dickens. 
 
 On removing to London with his family in 
 1825, John Dickens lived first at No. 16 Bay- 
 
 [27] 
 
ham street (now No. 141). He removed from 
 there probably about Christmas, 182^ ; cer- 
 tainly not later than January 21, 1824. Up to 
 Lady Day, 1824, Mrs. Dickens was proving 
 that she would " never desert Mr. Micawber " 
 by endeavoring to establish a school for girls 
 at No. 4 Gower street. It was from this house 
 that Dickens, a boy of eleven, sallied forth 
 to distribute circulars calling attention to the 
 merits of the establishment. "Yet nobody 
 ever came to school," he wrote to Forster, 
 " nor do I recollect that anybody ever pro- 
 posed to come." 
 
 From the Gower street house John Dick- 
 ens was taken to the Marshalsea, and Charles, 
 then twelve years old, went to live as a lodger 
 with Mrs. Roylance, incidentally to make mental 
 notes for the study of Mrs. Pipchin. These were 
 the dark days of the blacking warehouse. Mrs. 
 Roylance lived at No. 37 Little College street, 
 Camden Town, till the end of 182^. During 
 a part of this year the boy lived in a back attic 
 in Lant street, where he met Bob Sawyer and 
 the Garland family. While he was lodging 
 here '* something turned up," the timely legacy 
 came to his father, who was released from 
 bondage. According to Forster, a brief so- 
 
 [28] 
 
journ at Hampstead for the entire family 
 followed the improvement in John Dickens' 
 circumstances. The wanderers then estab- 
 lished themselves — July, 182^ — in a small 
 tenement, No. 13 Johnson street, Somers- 
 town. Mr. Kitton states that, according to 
 the rate book, Caroline Dickens was the ten- 
 ant of these premises till January, 1829. 
 
 On the family's removal to Johnson street, 
 after John Dickens' release in 182^, Charles, 
 then thirteen years old, was sent to Wellington 
 House Academy. According to Dr. Henry 
 Danson, who was a fellow pupil at Wellington 
 House, Dickens, while attending the school, 
 lived in " a very small house in a street lead- 
 ing out of Seymour street." Forster and 
 other biographers state that Dickens remained 
 at Wellington House Academy for about two 
 years ; but it appears that they have rather 
 overestimated the duration of his school days. 
 It was March 2$, 1824, that the Gower street 
 house was given up. Then followed the 
 period of the Marshalsea for the father and 
 Hungerford Stairs for the boy. This purga- 
 tory seems to have continued until the summer 
 of 182?, though Dickens, in his confidences to 
 Forster, says : " I have no idea how long it 
 
 [29] 
 
lasted, — whether for a year, or much more, or 
 less." One can best determine the duration 
 of this time of misery and humiliation by the 
 rate books and other records showing the ten- 
 ancy of the Dickens family of various houses 
 and lodgings. There is no record for the period 
 between March 2^, 1824, and July, 182^. In 
 all probability, this was the length of time that 
 John Dickens was a prisoner for debt, and the 
 blacking warehouse sentence must have been 
 for one year and three months. 
 
 Dickens certainly did not enter Welling- 
 ton House Academy until after his father had 
 been given freedom. He could not have be- 
 gun his attendance much before September, 
 182^. Two years at the school would ter- 
 minate in the autumn of 1827- Yet it is 
 certain that he entered the offices of Ellis 
 and Blackmore in May, 1827, and previous 
 to that he had been employed in the office 
 of Mr. Molloy. It appears probable that Dick- 
 ens did not have much more than one year's 
 schooling — possibly eighteen months' — apart 
 from the lessons he received as a small child 
 from the Reverend William Giles, the Baptist 
 clergyman at Chatham. What wonder that 
 John Dickens, when asked about his son's 
 [30] 
 
education, replied : " Why, sir, he may be said 
 to have educated himself 1 " 
 
 When Charles Dickens left the Ellis and 
 Blackmore office (November, 1828) he was 
 within three months of his seventeenth birth- 
 day. At this time he began his work as a 
 court reporter. Three months later the Dick- 
 ens family moved to the Polygon, Somers- 
 town. From the time he left school to the 
 date of the family's removal to the Polygon, 
 the boy lived with his father and mother and 
 contributed a share of his earnings to the 
 general exchequer. It is likely that the lodg- 
 ing in Cecil street, unfavorably mentioned in 
 the second letter in the present series, was 
 Dickens' first separate residence after his start 
 in life as a reporter. In 1830 the Dickens 
 family took up their residence in Fitzroy 
 street, Fitzroy Square, and Charles returned 
 to live at home, he and his father earning at 
 this time about ten pounds a week. This 
 was comparative affluence. Dickens began 
 to make congenial acquaintances; was taken 
 up by respectable middle-class Londoners, 
 and Mrs. Beadnell was sponsor for him in 
 a coterie which to his unsophisticated eyes 
 appeared to be Society. It may be imagined 
 [31] 
 
with what care he concealed the episodes of 
 the Marshalsea and the blacking warehouse, 
 and in what terror he lived, dreading a chance 
 revelation to his eminently respectable friends. 
 
 Although the house in Fitzroy street was 
 occupied by the Dickens family for nearly 
 three years, it is not mentioned in any of the 
 biographies. Mr. Kitton makes an allusion to 
 it, but knew this early home of Dickens only 
 through having seen the Kolle letters. These 
 show that after living nearly three years in 
 Fitzroy street, the family moved to Bentinck 
 street early in January, 1833. 
 
 With the residence in Fitzroy street there 
 began a new life for Charles Dickens and for 
 all the members of his family. The flamboy- 
 ant geniality of the father, expanded in the 
 sunlight of moderate prosperity. He doubtless 
 still indulged in the Micawber-like predilection 
 for spending a little more than he earned. He 
 was perhaps a little too fond of the flowing 
 bowl, and certain letters recently brought to 
 light show that he could seek small loans in 
 large language; but he was a companionable 
 man in his home ; he even took part in the 
 private theatricals given by Charles and his 
 friends. There was a piano in the parlor and 
 
 [32] 
 
there were occasional trips to the country. 
 Dickens, as a young reporter in the police 
 courts, in Doctor's Commons and in Parlia- 
 ment, saw much of varied phases of London 
 life, and we may take it for granted that he 
 found his work congenial and got a good deal 
 of fun out of it. ** The key of the street " — as 
 Mr. Chesterton says — was handed to him in 
 the old days at Hungerford Stairs ; but at this 
 time he began to use it to unlock new mean- 
 ings and mysteries. For recreations there were 
 the playhouses, private theatricals, occasional 
 visits in society, incipient heart interests, and 
 the usual pranks of precocious young men of 
 eighteen with the freedom of the city of London. 
 One obtains an idea of the gaieties in which 
 young Dickens indulged from the sketch enti- 
 tled Making a Night of It. In this the city 
 clerk, Thomas Potter, was no doubt the iden- 
 tical Potter who was his fellow clerk at Ellis 
 and Blackmore's and who shared his fondness 
 for the theatre. The following letter appears 
 to have been written after the two young men 
 had been " Making a Night of It," though it is 
 not possible to say whether Dickens himself 
 played the role of Mr. Robert Smithers in the 
 sketch of that title : — 
 
 [33] 
 
FiTZROY Street, 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I recollect this morning to my great 
 horror that I owe you eighteen pence which I borrowed 
 and forgot to return last night. I therefore hasten to 
 repair the omission with all possible despatch. A cab driver 
 whom I was obliged to ask for change last night, gave me 
 a bad five-shilling piece, so that I was in luck altogether. 
 My cold is about as bad as a cold can be, and on the 
 whole I feel tolerably happy and comfortable today, the 
 state of the weather being so admirably adapted to dis- 
 pel any gloomy ideas, of which I always have a very 
 plentiful stock. 
 
 Believe me. 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 " Thank Heaven, Pickwick will soon be out," 
 exclaimed the invalid after his prosy pastor's 
 visit. Yet here we find the -future creator of 
 Pickwick confessing to being in the " low 
 state" of Mrs. Gummidge. This letter must 
 have been written early in 1830, for the reason 
 that Dickens evidently did not know Kolle as 
 an intimate friend at the time. Otherwise 
 he would not have written in great haste to 
 return a loan of eighteen pence. The next 
 letter belongs to a somewhat later time in the 
 same year, and the outing in prospect doubt- 
 less refers to a bank holiday excursion. 
 [34] 
 
My dear Kolle, — Are you going out of town next 
 Saturday, because if you are not, we propose to get one 
 or two young men togetlier for the purpose of knocking 
 up a song or two, and 1 am specially directed to beg your 
 attendance on the occasion. I give you this early notice, 
 not because there is anything formal or party-like in the 
 arrangements for that day, but in order that I may have 
 a better chance of securing you. You will perhaps oblige 
 me with a line at your earliest convenience, giving me 
 your arrangements for Saturday, and the probability of 
 your local destination on that day. 
 
 Trusting that everything goes on as well as ever (which 
 I have been more than once inclined to doubt, in conse- 
 quence of not hearing from or seeing you), I remain, my 
 dear Kolle, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 FiTZROY Street, CHARLES DiCKENS 
 
 Monday morning [1830], 
 
 The date of the next letter can be fixed ex- 
 actly. It will be observed that it contains an 
 invitation to dine on Christmas Day, which in 
 the last paragraph is mentioned as Tuesday. 
 The letter was written on the Thursday pre- 
 ceding, which would be December 20th. The 
 Dickens family are prospering. "Our man" 
 shall return the borrowed books to Kolle. The 
 reference to the mendacious Miss Evans shows 
 that Marianne Leigh was not the only one in 
 the Beadnell social circle inclined to make 
 [35] 
 
mischief. Possibly Miss Evans had given cur- 
 rency to rumors about Charley Dickens' family 
 history which inclined to lower him in the 
 opinion of his Lombard street friends. 
 
 FiTZROY Street, 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, I am exceedingly sorry that I was 
 so unfortunate as to select last night for my annual visit 
 to Drury Lane, as 1 should have very much preferred 
 having a chat and cigar with you. 1 hope, however, you 
 will give me an early opportunity of doing so. How are 
 you engaged on Christmas Day ? If you do not join any 
 family party of your own, will you dine with us ? It 
 will, I need hardly say, give us all the greatest pleasure 
 to see you. Perhaps you will let me know by a line per 
 post. I have two books of yours which I am quite 
 ashamed of having kept so long. Our man shall bring 
 them this week without fail. 
 
 I long to give you my opinion of that Miss Evans, and 
 to communicate some monstrously strong circumstantial 
 evidence to prove that she must tell the most confounded 
 
 As yours are " ears polite " I shall leave your 
 
 imagination and observation to supply the blank. 
 
 Trusting that you have (as you easily may have) no 
 better engagement for Tuesday than I can oifer you, be- 
 lieve me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Of course 1 came home last night exactly four min- 
 utes after you left. 
 
 [36] 
 
One wonders if the Christmas party at John 
 Dickens' house in Fitzroy street had anything 
 of the gaiety and spirit of Bob Cratchit's feast. 
 Surely it had, with two hosts like young 
 Dickens and his jovial father. No doubt it 
 was a real old English middle-class Christmas, 
 with a punch-bowl many times replenished, a 
 goose — " there never was such a goose ! " — 
 songs, and round games, and dancing and the 
 drinking of healths, with the original Micawber 
 as toastmaster. 
 
 There is nothing in the contents of the next 
 letter which aids in fixing its date, excepting 
 that it belongs to the Fitzroy street group. It 
 was surely written in the spring or summer, 
 and either in 1830 or 1831. 
 
 Fitzroy Street, 
 
 Wednesday. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — As we have had a little sickness 
 among our family, we intend going to Highgate for a 
 fortnight. The spot we have chosen is in a very pleasant 
 neighborhood, and I have discovered a green lane which 
 looks as if nature had intended it for a smoking place. 
 If you can make it convenient to come down, write to me 
 and fix your own day. I am sorry I cannot offer you a 
 bed, because we are so pressed for room that I myself 
 hang out at " the Red Lion ; " but should you be dis- 
 posed to stay all night, I have no doubt you can be pro- 
 vided with a bed at the same establishment. The address 
 [37] 
 
is " Mrs. Goodman's, next door to the old Red Lion, 
 Highgate." The place has no other name ; but a two- 
 penny directed as above will no doubt find us. Remem- 
 ber me to all friends, and believe me, in haste, 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Twenty years after this letter was written, 
 Dickens' father and mother were buried at 
 Highgate Cemetery, and there too his infant 
 daughter, Dora, was laid to rest. He wrote to 
 Forster, in 18^2, " My Highgate journey yes- 
 terday was a sad one. Sad to think how all 
 journeys tend that way. Wild ideas are upon 
 me of going to Paris — Rouen — Switzerland 
 — and writing the remaining two-thirds of the 
 next number, aloft in some queer inn room." 
 The terrible restlessness that turned so much 
 of his work into self-torment was upon him 
 then, for he had become a famous man; 
 youth and carelessness and peace of mind 
 had gone from him forever, and instead of 
 looking for a green lane wherein to idle for 
 a summer's day, he sought feverishly for some 
 new environment which might stimulate his 
 imagination. 
 
 The next two letters refer to a proposal of 
 marriage written by Dickens and sent by Kolle 
 [38] 
 
to be delivered to Maria Beadnell. It is im- 
 possible to draw any other inference from the 
 contents. Unfortunately, there is no internal 
 evidence to fix the date of these letters. We 
 know that they were written before January S, 
 1833, as on that date the Dickens family re- 
 moved from Fitzroy street to the Bentinck 
 street house. It was from the latter that 
 Dickens addressed the letters to Maria Bead- 
 nell which are contained in The Bibliophile 
 Society's recent volume. Reverting to the 
 poem, The Bill of Fare, we recall Dickens' 
 confession that he had lost his heart to Maria 
 "one year from last May," or May, I83O. It 
 is more likely, however, that The Bill of Fare 
 was Dickens' first declaration of his affections 
 for Miss Beadnell, as its daring, if disapproved, 
 could have been accounted for by calling the 
 verses mere fun. The poem was written to 
 be seen by all the persons mentioned in it, and 
 it is not probable that Dickens would have 
 written as he did in these verses of a young 
 girl whom he had already asked to be his wife, 
 whether his proposal had met with favor or 
 not. One is inclined to think that the next 
 two letters were written in 1831. 
 
 [39] 
 
FiTZROY Street, 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I would really feel some delicacy in 
 asking you again to deliver the enclosed as addressed, 
 were it not for two reasons. In the first place, you know 
 so well my existing situation that you must be almost 
 perfectly aware of the general nature of the note, and in 
 the second, I should not have written it, for I should have 
 communicated its contents verbally, were it not that I 
 lost the opportunity of keeping the old gentleman out of 
 the way as long as possible last night. To these reasons 
 you may add that I have not the slightest objection to 
 your knowing its contents from the first syllable to the 
 last. 
 
 I trust under these circumstances that you will not ob- 
 ject to doing me the very essential service of delivering 
 the enclosed as soon this afternoon as you can, and per- 
 haps you will accompany the delivery by asking Miss 
 Beadnell only to read it when she is quite alone. Of 
 course in this sense I consider -you as nobody. 
 
 By complying with this request you will confer a very 
 great favor on, dear Kolle, 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Excuse haste. 
 
 From this letter there may be obtained a 
 fair idea of the position of young Dickens in 
 the Beadnell family. He was liked for his en- 
 gaging social qualities and his agreeable per- 
 sonality. Mrs. Beadnell, who, judging from 
 
 [40] 
 
the pen portrait in The Bill of Fare, was a 
 g-ood-hearted matron, was partial to the youth ; 
 but certainly he was not to be taken seriously 
 as an admirer of one of her daughters. By 
 wise fathers and mothers his profession is 
 regarded as precarious ; he was something of 
 a Bohemian, — perhaps a trifle fast. Some of 
 these letters indicate much cigar smoking, and 
 a little too much drinking for a youth of 
 eighteen. He was always fond of fine rai- 
 ment—no doubt as much so at eighteen 
 as he was in his days of velvet coats and 
 gaudy waistcoats. He was excellent company, 
 the life of a party, but not to be considered 
 as a suitor. No doubt Maria Beadnell, some- 
 what older than Dickens, regarded him much 
 in the manner of her mother. 
 
 There is something delightfully boyish in 
 the reference in this letter to the difficulty 
 of "keeping the old gentleman out of the 
 way," — Rosina and Almaviva in an English 
 setting. What manner of man was the old 
 gentleman who would not be kept out of the 
 way? The portrait of Mr. Beadnell in The 
 Bill of Fare verses is negative, but contrasts 
 so vividly with the complimentary description 
 of Mrs. Beadnell that one infers Dickens' dis- 
 
 [41] 
 
like of him. No doubt we have a sketch of 
 him in Mr. Casby ; and one suspects that he, 
 as well as Mr. S. C. Hall, contributed some of 
 the qualities of Mr. Pecksniff, — perhaps the 
 manner of that great and good man toward 
 his fair daughters. Mr. Pecksniff, too, was a 
 sort of architect, — the profession of which 
 Mr. Beadnell had been an ornament. The 
 little that we know of him indicates that he 
 was a pompous and ponderous person, — one 
 of those middle-class Englishmen on whom 
 the affairs of the British Empire weigh heavily. 
 " His opinions," wrote Dickens, " were always 
 sound and sincere," with the '* sound" in italics. 
 The joke reminds one of Jerrold's answer to 
 the bore's question : " Are not my opinions 
 sound?" "They are, and, nothing else." 
 
 In the Dickens-Beadnell volume is printed a 
 letter from the novelist to George Beadnell, 
 written in 18^2. The original of this letter, 
 by the way, is in the possession of the present 
 writer. Unfortunately George Beadnell's in- 
 vitation, to which this is a reply, was burnt 
 in the holocaust of autographs at Gad's Hill 
 in i860. Very likely it would tell us some- 
 thing of Mr. Beadnell's characteristics. 
 
 The foregoing letter seems to prove that 
 
 [42] 
 
while Kolle was the accepted suitor of Anne 
 Beadnell, the engagement being sanctioned by 
 her parents, Dickens' courtship of Maria was 
 surreptitious. It also shows that Kolle was 
 Dickens' confidant in his love affair. Sent on 
 Thursday, the love-letter or offer of marriage 
 was promptly answered, as Dickens received 
 Miss Beadnell's reply the next morning. In 
 it he was asked to send another letter by 
 Kolle. 
 
 FiTZROY Street, 
 Friday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — As I was requested in a note I re- 
 ceived this morning to forward my answer by the same 
 means as my first note, I am emboldened to ask you if 
 you will be so kind as to deliver the enclosed for me 
 when you practise your customary duet this afternoon. 
 I hope you will not make it long before in mere charity 
 you look in upon me. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 If, as it is surmised, the earlier letter trans- 
 mitted by Kolle was an offer of marriage, it 
 is evident that Maria gave Dickens no defi- 
 nite reply. She could not have said "yes," 
 or "no." She kept her swain in suspense. 
 Being a coquettish young person, she enjoyed 
 [43] 
 
the homage of love-letters, particularly as they 
 were cleverly written by an ardent and attrac- 
 tive youth. She temporized, and doubtless 
 relished the cat-and-mouse game. Dickens 
 was serious enough for two. " I hope," he 
 writes to Kolle, " you will not make it long 
 before in mere charity you look in upon 
 me." 
 
 From any evidence known to be in exist- 
 ence, it is impossible to determine the relations 
 of Charles Dickens and Maria Beadnell from 
 the time of this correspondence until the mis- 
 understanding and fmal separation in the spring 
 of 1 83 3 . It is most likely that there was a clan- 
 destine engagement which Dickens regarded as 
 a very serious matter, but which Miss Beadnell 
 considered a source of amusement. It is safe 
 to assume that there was no engagement with 
 parental consent. Neither George Beadnell 
 nor his wife would be likely to approve of the 
 betrothal of their daughter to a youth under 
 twenty, somewhat volatile and unstable, and 
 with no substantial worldly prospects. Maria 
 possessed beauty and charm, and, however 
 bright and clever Dickens might be consid- 
 ered, the Beadnells had higher expectations 
 for her. Forster intimates that there was a 
 
 [44] 
 
secret engagement when he quotes the fol- 
 lowing as an allusion to the *' Dora of 1829." 
 
 "The lovers sit looking at one another so 
 superlatively happy, that I mind me when I, 
 turned of eighteen, went with my Angelica to 
 a city church on account of a shower (by this 
 special coincidence that it was in Huggin-lane), 
 and when I said to my Angelica, 'Let the 
 blessed event, Angelica, occur at no altar but 
 this 1 ' and when my Angelica consented that it 
 should occur at no other, — which it certainly 
 never did, for it never occurred anywhere. 
 And 0, Angelica, what has become of you, 
 the present Sunday morning when I can't at- 
 tend to the sermon, and, more difficult ques- 
 tion than that, what has become of me as I 
 was when I sat by your side ? " 
 
 That there was an engagement of some kind 
 seems certain. Dickens refers to the affair as 
 having " excluded every other idea from my 
 mind for four years at a time of life when four 
 years are equal to four times four." It is not 
 to be supposed that a love affair would " per- 
 vade every chink and crevice of his mind for 
 three or four years," unless there were an en- 
 gagement at some time during that period. 
 That the relations were equivalent to those 
 
 [45] 
 
of affianced lovers is shown by the Dickens- 
 Beadnell correspondence. If there were no 
 definite relations to break off, why did it re- 
 quire the exchange of so many letters ? That 
 Maria Beadnell ever had any serious idea of 
 marrying Dickens is not probable ; but it is 
 fairly certain that he considered her his be- 
 trothed, that he expected to marry her, and 
 that she deluded him into that hope. Proba- 
 bly he was the most attractive young man in 
 a coterie which is not likely to have been 
 notably brilliant. 
 
 The preceding letters are the only ones 
 known positively to have been written be- 
 fore January, 18^3. In that month the Dick- 
 ens family removed from the house in Fitzroy 
 street to one in Bentinck street, Manchester 
 Square. Forster names 1831 as the date of 
 residence in the latter, but he seems to have 
 had no knowledge of the Fitzroy street home, 
 where the family lived for at least two years. 
 The next letter following is the only one bear- 
 ing a date in the writer's hand. It was written 
 January ^, 1833, and proves exactly the time 
 of the removal to Bentinck street. This is of 
 some interest, as it was while living in the 
 Bentinck street house that Dickens made his 
 
 [46] 
 
beginning in literature. It was in a room in this 
 house that he wrote his first sketch, the manu- 
 script of which he mailed with an agitation 
 which he has vividly described. The house was 
 No. 18. About fifteen years ago it was torn 
 down to make room for a row of modern man- 
 sions ; and Mr. Kitton at the time of his investi- 
 gations found that the tenant of No. 19 " oddly 
 enough bore the novelisf s patronymic." 
 
 Dear Kolle, — Will you excuse my postponing tlie 
 pleasure of seeing yourself and brother until Sunday 
 week ? my reason is this : 
 
 As we are having coals in at the new place, cleaning, 
 &c., we cannot very well remove until Tuesday or Wed- 
 nesday next. The piano will most likely go to Bentinck 
 Street today, and as I have already said, we cannot ac- 
 company it, so that the piano will be in one place and we 
 in another. 
 
 In addition to this we shall be all in bustle and 1 fear 
 should impress your brother with a very uncomfortable 
 idea of our domestic arrangements. Will you therefore 
 let me hope to see you on Sunday week, when perhaps 
 we shall be enabled to get a friend of yours to meet you. 
 
 1 was not certain last night that we should postpone 
 our removal ; had 1 been so I would have spared you the 
 infliction of deciphering this elegant epistle. 
 Believe me, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Saturday, Jan. 5, 1833. 
 
 [47] 
 
It will be seen that the Marshalsea was now 
 so far in the background that a piano was a 
 household necessity with the Dickens family, 
 and that, too, when pianos were less common 
 than at present. Music probably played an 
 important part in the social life of Dickens 
 and his young friends. His sister Fanny was 
 a prize pupil at the Royal Academy, and, as 
 one of the preceding letters shows, he was 
 fond of getting together a party of young men 
 for the purpose of " knocking up a song or 
 two." The next letter makes good the post- 
 poned invitation, and the house-warming party 
 in the new house in Bentinck street was given 
 January 11. — 
 
 Dear Kolle, — I enclose an invitation to yourself and 
 both your brothers for the 1 1th. 1 do not like after par- 
 taking so liberally of your hospitality to leave anyone 
 out. 
 
 I was sorry to hear you were " diskivered " the other 
 night, though 1 do not know that the thing is a bit the 
 worse for it in the end. 
 
 Let me see you one evening this week because next 
 the House begins. I shall be at home. 
 Believe me, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Most sincerely, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 Bentinck Street. 
 
 [48] 
 
Dickens' regret at Kolle's being "diskiv- 
 ered " may refer to the latter's having been 
 caught in the act of carrying a note to Maria. 
 Kolle's courtship of Anne Beadnell continued 
 to prosper, but Dickens seems to have made 
 no definite progress. Dora was either worn 
 out by the opposition of her parents, or she 
 found that playing the coquette with one 
 faithful and enamoured young man became 
 monotonous. In February or March, 1833, 
 her coldness to Dickens — " heartless indiflfer- 
 ence," he calls it — became more than he 
 could endure, and he wrote the first of the 
 printed letters to Miss Beadnell. Shortly af- 
 terward, Kolle's engagement to Anne was 
 formally announced. The despondency of 
 Dickens at this time and his wretchedness be- 
 cause of the ill-treatment he received are 
 shown by his letters to Miss Beadnell and his 
 confidences to Forster years afterward. But 
 he made a good fight and ambition began to 
 stir within him. If he could not win Dora, 
 he would prove to her that she had lost a 
 lover of whom she might have been proud. 
 It is likely that at this time he thought seri- 
 ously of becoming an actor. Dickens told 
 Forster that when he was *' about twenty," he 
 
 [49] 
 
applied to Bartley, stage manager at Covent 
 Garden, for an engagement. 
 
 The next letter was written in April, 1833. 
 It contrasts Kolle's good fortune with his own 
 unhappy situation, and one may feel the self- 
 pity of youth suffering the pangs of despised 
 love. At the same time there is an intimated 
 determination to throw off depression by tak- 
 ing up with other interests. Dora may frown, 
 but David will try to forget her unkindness 
 by throwing himself heart and soul into a 
 congenial task. — 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Monday morning [April, 1833]. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I received your note the other day 
 and of course much regretted the absence of any member 
 of my company on the occasion of a grand rehearsal. 
 You ask me whether 1 do not congratulate you. I do 
 most sincerely. If anyone can be supposed to take a 
 lively and real interest in such a case it is an old and 
 mutual friend of both parties. Though perhaps I cannot 
 lay claim to an old friend 1 hope I may be that of a real 
 one, and although unfortunately and unhappily for my- 
 self, I have no fellow-feeling with you, no cause to sym- 
 pathize with your past causes of annoyance, or your 
 present prospects of happiness, I am not the less disposed 
 to offer my heartfelt congratulations to you because you 
 are, or at all events will be, what I never can, happy and 
 contented, taking present grievances as happiness, com- 
 [50] 
 
pared with former difficulties and looking cheerfully and 
 steadily forward to a bright prospective of many happy 
 years. 
 
 Now turning from feeling and making oneself miser- 
 able, and so on, may I ask you to spare one evening this 
 week for the purpose of doing your two pair of side 
 scenes. I would not ask you, but I really have no other 
 resource. The time is fast approaching and I am rather 
 nervous. Will you write and tell me when you will 
 come and when I may send for your scene. Thursday 
 is a rehearsal of Clari with the band, and Friday week 
 a dress rehearsal. 
 
 You shall have your bills when I see you. An im- 
 mense audience are invited, including many judges. 
 Write me an answer to these queries as soon as pos- 
 sible, pray. 
 
 The family are busy. The corps dramatic are all 
 anxiety. The scenery is all completing rapidly, the 
 machinery is finished, the curtain hemmed, the orches- 
 tra complete and the manager grimy. 
 Believe me, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 It is rather startling to read the confession 
 of Charles Dickens at the age of twenty-one 
 that he is not and never can be happy and 
 contented; but a vein of melancholy appears 
 in several of these letters to Kolle as well as in 
 those to Maria Beadnell. His despondent in- 
 trospection at the time was due partly to the 
 [511 
 
unhappy outcome of his love affair; but it 
 was also an essential quality in Dickens' tem- 
 perament. The greatest humorist of his time 
 was also the most sentimental of men, and 
 most intensely so about himself. Humor and 
 a tendency to be '* sad as night only for wan- 
 toness " arise from the same causes, sensibility 
 and imagination. Moliere was a melancholy 
 man. Liston, the drollest of comedians, in a 
 fit of melancholia, visited a doctor who, not 
 recognizing him, advised him to "go to see 
 Liston act." Dickens, with all his joviality 
 and the genuine gaiety of most of his writ- 
 ings, was a man of many heart-aches. It is 
 part of the law of compensation that one who 
 most intensely enjoys the good in life must 
 suffer most keenly from its ills. 
 
 This and the next two letters refer to the 
 performance of Clari, or the Maid of Milan, 
 by an amateur company organized and di- 
 rected by Dickens. This representation took 
 place on Saturday evening, April 27, 1833, 
 and these letters were written during the prog- 
 ress of the rehearsals. Kolle appears to have 
 been an important factor in the amateur the- 
 atricals, as he was cast for a prominent part 
 in Clari and was also called upon to paint the 
 
 [52] 
 
scenery. But KoIIe had not Dickens' incen- 
 tive to work ; he had no sorrows to disperse 
 and no broken heart to forget. As a newly 
 engaged young man, he had no evenings to 
 devote to the painting of side scenes. "To 
 sport with Amaryllis in the shade " was his spe- 
 cialty for the moment, and he much preferred 
 rehearsing his love scenes with the gentle 
 Anne to practising the mouthings of " the 
 Nobleman" in John Howard Payne's opera. 
 Who can blame him for absenting himself 
 from rehearsals to an extent that brought 
 upon him the rebuke of the young director 
 and stage manager? 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Tuesday morning [April, 1833]. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I will not say that I have been sur- 
 prised at our not hearing from or seeing you, either on 
 the day you mentioned in your note or any other time 
 since its receipt, because of course we know from practi- 
 cal experience in other cases that a little flow of pros- 
 perity is an excellent cooler of former friendships, and 
 that when other and more pleasant engagements can be 
 formed, visits, if not visits of convenience, become exces- 
 sively irksome. This is everybody's way, and of course, 
 therefore, I attach no blame to you that it is yours also. 
 I do not say this with any ill-natured feeling, or in any 
 unkind spirit, but 1 know that something like this is felt 
 [53] 
 
by others here, and I am really sorry for it, though as I 
 said before by no means surprised that it should be so. 
 
 Now, as Saturday is fast approaching I should really 
 be much obliged to you if you will (if you can find the 
 time) write me a word in answer to these two questions. 
 In the first place, do you play the Nobleman ? I have 
 the dress and if you are disinclined to play the character 
 I must intrust it to other hands. In the second place, 
 when may I send for your scene, as it requires fitting up, 
 lighting, &c. ? 
 
 Believe me (in great haste). 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Thus admonished, Kolle made haste to sup- 
 ply his scenery and to perfect himself in the 
 part of the Nobleman. Evidently the ama- 
 teurs, under young Dickens' management, 
 went into their theatricals quite thoroughly. 
 The letters show how completely absorbed 
 Dickens was in these affairs. He was the 
 organizer and stage director ; he played a lead- 
 ing character in each of the three pieces per- 
 formed ; he wrote the "Introductory Prologue," 
 and in all probability was the author of the 
 afterpiece, Amateurs and Actors, besides su- 
 perintending all the details. In later years he 
 frequently demonstrated his great talent for 
 this sort of work as well as for theatrical im- 
 [54] 
 
personation, but it is probable that he never 
 took a more anxious interest in a performance 
 than in this one, when one of his chief motives 
 was to impress Maria Beadnell. The three 
 characters for which he cast himself were de- 
 signed to show his versatih'ty as an actor. In 
 Clari he played a " heavy " part, the heroine's 
 father ; in The Married Bachelor, he acted a 
 polished man of the world — high comedy; 
 and in Amateurs and Actors, a low comedy 
 role. 
 
 The allusion to " our friend the clerk" in the 
 following note may refer to arrangements for 
 Kolle's marriage which was to occur in the 
 following month. 
 
 [April, 1833]. 
 
 Dear Kolle, — Will you be kind enough to give 
 Henry Bramwell the enclosed 14/ — for cigars, at the 
 same time saying I am much obliged to him. Ask 
 him to be punctual on Monday as I expect an excel- 
 lent rehearsal, and " Look to yourself." The scenery is 
 progressing at a very rapid rate, the machinery is excel- 
 lent, the decorations are very good and ditto expensive ; 
 and in short the whole affair is in excellent train. I am 
 busy and therefore will not give you the trouble of de- 
 ciphering any more of my ilegant writing. 
 Believe me, dear Kolle, 
 
 Sincerely yours, C. D. 
 
 [55] 
 
Have you seen our friend the clerk yet ? Or have 
 you adopted the other course ? No good results yet, I 
 presume. 
 
 The Henry Bramwell, to whom the money 
 for cigars was sent, was a young law student, 
 who afterward became a Judge and a Peer of 
 the Realm. He was a member of the cast of 
 Clari assuming the character of the Duke 
 Vivaldi. The performance was given and it 
 may be assumed that Dickens covered himself 
 with amateur glory. Maria Beadnell was in 
 the audience ; but the only effect that the af- 
 fair had upon her was to create additional 
 coldness on account of Dickens' attentions to 
 Marianne Leigh. He declares that, on that 
 evening, he " could not gti rid of her." As 
 Miss Leigh and Maria were intimate friends, 
 this statement of Dickens means one of two 
 things: either Miss Leigh was in love with 
 him, as Professor Baker thinks, or her persist- 
 ence in putting herself in his way was prear- 
 ranged by the two girls in order that Maria 
 might have a definite cause for ridding herself 
 of him. There is at least one good reason for 
 believing, with Professor Baker, that Marianne 
 Leigh was in love with Dickens. It is that 
 she, apparently, was a much cleverer girl than 
 [56] 
 
Maria. A clever girl would be quick to ap- 
 preciate the unusual qualities of a young man 
 like Dickens and his superiority to other 
 youths, while an unintelligent woman (such as 
 Maria Beadnell appears in both the pen por- 
 traits afterward made of her by Dickens) 
 would have been merely bored by him. In 
 The'Billof Fare, Miss Leigh is described as "a 
 fine roasting Jack ; a patent one, too — never 
 wants winding up." Does not this indicate 
 that Dickens' dislike for the young woman 
 antedated by two years her mischief-making in 
 his love affair ? And may she not have loved 
 him the more because she felt that her case 
 was hopeless on account of his preference for 
 her girl friend ? 
 
 Subsequent to the dramatic performance, 
 April 27th, 183^, Dickens met Miss Beadnell, 
 and it is evident that she reproached him for 
 his interest in Marianne Leigh. She after- 
 ward repeated her charges in a letter and 
 Dickens wrote denying Miss Leigh's interfer- 
 ence. Kolle at this time was busily preparing 
 for his wedding which had been announced 
 for May 21st. The second letter to Maria, on 
 page 48 of the Dickens-Beadnell correspond- 
 ence, written on a Tuesday afternoon, was 
 [57] 
 
probably sent May 14th. Dickens and Kolle 
 had discussed the increasing coldness of Maria 
 Beadnell and the mischievous part played by 
 Miss Leigh. Again Kolle played the confidant 
 and go-between. The letter to Maria asking 
 her consent to Dickens writing to Miss Leigh 
 was sent to Kolle with the following note : — 
 
 My dear Kolle, — On reflection it appeared to me that 
 as Miss Beadnell is a party concerned and as Marianne 
 Leigh's malice in the event of my writing might be 
 directed against her, I have thought it best to ask her 
 consent to my writing at all, which I have done in the en- 
 closed note. You know how I feel upon the subject, and 
 how anxious I naturally am, and I am sure, therefore, you 
 will do all you can for me when I say that I want it de- 
 livered immediately. 1 have lost too much time already. 
 Believe me, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Faithfully yours, C. D. 
 
 Tuesday evening [May 14, 1S33]. 
 
 Although Dickens was properly punctilious 
 in asking Miss Beadnell's permission to write 
 his resentful letter to Marianne Leigh, it is 
 quite certain that he was glad enough to have 
 this excuse to write to his chilly and silly 
 Maria. Write he did, and her reply — judging 
 from his next letter — reiterated charges of 
 conspiracy against her by Dickens and her 
 imaginary rival. However, her feminine curi- 
 [58] 
 
osity was strong enough to cause her to admit 
 that she would like to see the letter he in- 
 tended writing to Marianne. On the follow- 
 ing evening, therefore, Dickens called at Kolle's 
 house with a letter for Miss Beadnell enclosing 
 the scornful epistle to Miss Leigh. Of the 
 latter the artless Maria was careful to keep a 
 copy which she made, and which appears in 
 the Dickens-Beadnell volume. The letter was 
 sent to Miss Leigh and, as it must have effect- 
 ually cured her of any affection she may have 
 had for Dickens, it is likely that the two girls 
 lost no time in meeting for a chat and a good 
 laugh over the affair which Dickens regarded 
 as a tragedy that wrecked his life. 
 
 Kolle was the bearer of Dickens' last appeal 
 to Maria Beadnell. This letter was written May 
 19, 18^3, the Sunday immediately preceding 
 Kolle's marriage. The following note to Kolle 
 was, of course, written on the same day, and 
 the letter to Maria sent with it to be delivered 
 to her when Kolle made his Sunday evening 
 call upon his betrothed. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I enclose a very conciliatory note. 
 Sans pride, Sans Reserve, Sans anything but an evident 
 wish to be reconciled, which I shall be most obliged by 
 your delivering. 
 
 [59] 
 
Independently of the numerous advantages of your 
 marriage you will have this great consolation, that you 
 will be for once and for aye relieved from these most 
 troublesome commissions. F leave the note myself, hop- 
 ing that it is possible, though not probable, that it may 
 catch you so as to be delivered today. 
 
 By the by, if I had many friends in the habit of mar- 
 rying, which friends had brothers who possessed an ex- 
 tensive assortment of choice hock, I should be dead in no 
 time. 
 
 Yesterday I felt like a maniac, today my interior re- 
 sembles a lime basket. 
 
 Truly yours, C. D. 
 
 Sunday [May 19, 1 83 3]. 
 
 The last two paragraphs refer to a bachelors* 
 supper given on the evening of May 17th. 
 Dickens apparently drank more than was good 
 for him. He was always .fond of the liquid 
 good things in life, and on this occasion, apart 
 from the ordinary temptations of a festive 
 gathering of young men, there doubtless was 
 in his mind a recklessness born of despond- 
 ency. He compared Kolle's " most blest con- 
 dition" with the unhappy termination of his 
 own love aflfair, and he drank to. forget — 
 enough to make him feel "like a maniac" the 
 next day and very uncomfortable on the sec- 
 ond day after. 
 
 In his note to Kolle, Dickens accurately de- 
 
 [60] 
 
scribes his letter to Miss Beadnell. It is one 
 that would touch the heart of any girl worth 
 the winning ; but Maria Beadnell's little mind 
 was made up. If she had ever cared for 
 Dickens, she had outgrown all fondness for 
 him. As he said in one of his later letters, 
 when Dora became Flora, " you answered me 
 coldly and reproachfully, and so I went my 
 way." This cold and reproachful answer she 
 gave to Kolle to deliver to Dickens, and the 
 final dismissal was received by the unhappy 
 lover on the next day. Even now he did not 
 "go his way" without another appeal or a 
 last word of some sort. For on the follow- 
 ing day he sent another letter for Kolle to 
 give to Maria. — 
 
 Tuesday [May 21st, 1833]. 
 
 My dear ATo//^, — " Least said soonest mended." I 
 am very very much obliged to you for performing my 
 commission in the midst of your multifarious concerns 
 so kindly and punctually. May I trouble you with an- 
 other ? by way, of course, of evincing my gratitude. 
 
 I shall be at my post in Addle street at 10 : 00 to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 To Henry Kolle, Esq., 
 14 Addle Street, Aldermanbury. 
 
 [61] 
 
This last letter was not kept with her other 
 trophies by Miss Beadnell. It was so unusual 
 for her to overlook anything gratifying to her 
 girlish vanity, that one is tempted to believe 
 that the letter never reached her. Kolle was 
 to be married the next day. It is quite possi- 
 ble that he forgot to deliver his friend's note ; 
 or he may have suppressed it, believing, more 
 consistently than Dickens, " least said soonest 
 mended." 
 
 The last paragraph in the note to Kolle 
 refers to his wedding, which occurred the 
 following day. Dickens was Kolle's best 
 man, and the being " at his post in Addle 
 street" refers to his calling for the bride- 
 groom at the latter's house. No. 14 Addle 
 street. 
 
 Thus ended Dickens' first and, as far as 
 known, his only real love affair. His subse- 
 quent courtship and marriage seem to have 
 been quite free from the element of poetic 
 sentiment. He himself wrote to Maria in 
 18^^ : " Whatever of fancy, romance, energy, 
 passion, aspiration and determination belong 
 to me, I never have separated and never shall 
 separate from the hard-hearted little woman — 
 you." That he had at the time of his marriage 
 
 [62] 
 
an honest and manly aflfection for the lady 
 whom he made his wife is beyond question. 
 Mr. Chesterton thinks that Dickens fell in 
 love with all three of the Hogarth sisters ; but 
 there is in the known letters to Miss Catherine 
 Hogarth nothing of the passionate adoration 
 that was lavished upon his first love. Mary 
 Hogarth was his ideal of all that is adorable in 
 girlhood. His devotion to her and his grief 
 for her early death were among the most en- 
 during passions of his life. His relations with 
 Georgina Hogarth were those of an ennobling 
 friendship. Instead of having fallen in love 
 with all three of the sisters, as Mr. Chesterton 
 suggests, it is more likely that Dickens fell in 
 love with none of them. 
 
 The following note to Miss Catherine Ho- 
 garth, written at some time in 183^, is in the 
 collection of the present writer and is now 
 first printed. While its tone is affectionate, it 
 has none of the fervor of the Beadnell letters 
 and, in fact, shows a greater enthusiasm for 
 books and his work than for his fiancee. A 
 man whose letters to friends are always so 
 affectionate could hardly have written more 
 conventionally to the young woman he was 
 on the point of marrying. — 
 [63] 
 
FuRNivAL's Inn, 
 Thursday Night. 
 
 My dearest Katie — It is nearly eight, and I have not 
 yet even begun the Sketch ; neither have I thought of a 
 subject. Excuse the brevity of this note on that account 
 and believe that it is only occasioned by my wish to see 
 you as early as possible tomorrow. 
 
 I send you by George (who in Fred's absence on busi- 
 ness, is kind enough to be the bearer of this) the volume 
 which contains the Life of Savage. I have turned down 
 the leaf. Now do read it attentively ; if you do, I know 
 from your excellent understanding you will be delighted. 
 If you slur it, you will think it dry. I have written to 
 Macrone for Rook wood ; and shall have it tomorrow, I 
 doubt not. 
 
 Give my best love to your mamma and Mary. Write 
 me word how all is going on. 
 
 Ever yours, my dearest love, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 With this is a wrapper addressed "Miss 
 Hogarth. Favored by George Hogarth, Esq." 
 The letter was given by Mrs. Perugini (Kate 
 Dickens) to George Augustus Sala who has 
 endorsed it, " Precious Dickens letter to his 
 wife before their marriage." 
 
 Professor Baker finds it difficult to under- 
 stand Maria Beadnell's treatment of Dickens. 
 It may be accounted for by the fact that she 
 did not have intelligence enough to appreciate 
 
 [64] 
 
him nor heart enough to respond to a genuine 
 passion. Miss Beadnell was Flora Pinching at 
 forty-five or so. At twenty she was the same 
 Flora, excepting that she had the charm of 
 Dora's youthful prettiness. What Dickens saw 
 in her to fall desperately in love with would 
 be a greater mystery, were it not for the fact 
 that the cleverest men have never been proof 
 against the fascinations of the silliest women. 
 *' If ye have charm," says Maggie Wiley in 
 Mr. Barrie's play, " it does not much matter 
 what else ye have." And it must be remem- 
 bered that Dickens was only eighteen when 
 his infatuation began, and a little more than 
 twenty-one when he received his ultimate 
 dismissal. 
 
 One cannot avoid thinking what a blessing 
 in disguise Flora's refusal was. As an ideal, a 
 lost love, she was a source of inspiration in 
 the work of the novelist, and when she re- 
 appeared in his life she was a figure for a 
 comedy ; but, as a wife, it would seem that 
 she would have been the last woman in the 
 world to have made Dickens happy. Poor 
 soul I She was wretched enough in her re- 
 grets in later years. She is only remembered 
 as the woman who jilted Dickens, even as 
 
 [65 1 
 
Venables is remembered as the man who, as a 
 school-boy, broke the nose of Thackeray. 
 
 One service Maria Beadnell did for Dickens 
 and for all mankind. Her treatment of him 
 stimulated his ambition and made him plunge 
 into work, determined to make a name for 
 himself. It was during the next few months 
 that Dickens began to aspire to a class of work 
 more satisfying and remunerative than the 
 drudgery of the reporters' gallery. He has 
 told us, through the medium of his biog- 
 rapher, that his notion of becoming an actor 
 was suggested only by the idea that the stage 
 would be the source of a good income. Then, 
 as he says, he "made a great splash in the 
 Gallery" and the theatrical ambitions were 
 abandoned. 
 
 It was at this time that he began to try his 
 hand at small forms of fiction. This is a nat- 
 ural progression from the descriptive work of 
 a reporter. It is a step that has been made by 
 many writers, but never so quickly and with 
 such complete success as by Dickens. The 
 novelist has described his dropping his first 
 Sketch " into a dark letter-box in a dark office 
 up a dark court in Fleet street." He had 
 told of his agitation when this first article 
 
 [66] 
 
appeared in all the glory of print. " On which 
 occasion I walked down to Westminster Hall, 
 and turned into it for half an hour, because 
 my eyes were so dimmed by joy and pride 
 that they could not bear the street and were 
 not fit to be seen there." 
 
 What then was this first attempt that brought 
 first fear and trembling and then tears of joy 
 to the young enthusiast? To the lovers of 
 Dickens, it is a matter of distinct interest. 
 Mr. Forster in the Life states that the first of 
 the Sketches by Bo{ to appear was " not Mr. 
 Minns and His Cousin, as he (Dickens) 
 thought, but Mrs. Joseph Porter over the IVayJ' 
 The biographer says : " In the January number 
 for 18M of what was then called the Old 
 Monthly Magazine, his first published piece of 
 writing had seen the light." In this statement 
 Mr. Forster was in error upon a point of some 
 importance. The next letter to Kolle proves 
 that the " first published piece of writing " was 
 not the one stated by the biographer, but the 
 one identified in Dickens' own recollection. 
 Moreover, it appeared not in January, 18M, 
 but in December, 183 ^ It is characteristic of 
 PQj-ster — who lives in the cabman's descrip- 
 tion of him as " a h'arbitrary gent " — that he 
 [671 
 
claims a more exact knowledge than Dickens 
 of the latter's first published writing, and then 
 proceeds to identify the wrong work and the 
 incorrect date. 
 
 A Dinner at Poplar Walk may be found in 
 the Monthly Magazine for December, 18^^, 
 by any person of an investigating turn of 
 mind, whether a biographer or otherwise. In 
 the collected Sketches the title is changed to 
 Mr. Minns and His Cousin. Here is Dickens' 
 letter written with a certain pride of author- 
 ship; yet in diffidence withal and the hope 
 that his Dora's sister will approve — and per- 
 haps send the magazine to Dora. 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Tuesday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — 1 intend with the gracious permis- 
 sion of yourself and spouse to look in upon you some 
 evening this week. 1 do not write you, however, for 
 the purpose of ceremoniously making this important an- 
 nouncement, but to beg Mrs. K.'s criticism of a little 
 paper of mine (the first of a series) in the Monthly 
 (not the New Monthly Magazine) of this month. I 
 have n't a copy to send, but if the number falls in your 
 way, look for the article. It is the same that you saw 
 lying on my table, but the name is transmogrified from 
 A Sunday out of Town to A Dinner at Poplar JValk. 
 Knowing the interest (or thinking I know the interest) 
 [68] 
 
/, 
 
 i^ cA^p ci 'l. 
 
 V 
 
 t /.K. /f^t/Y 
 
 /V, 
 
 ^ / 
 
 f^^ 
 
 / y 
 
 ^ ^i^n7i<,i^^'^t<y-t^. 
 
 
 ^^J<rrt^/^- C-^ - Cl.^ f . ^ 
 
 ;^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^**^«*«f.= 
 
 ■ / . 
 
you are kind enough to take in my movements, I have 
 the vanity to make this communication. 
 
 Best remembrances to Mrs. K. " So no more at 
 present " from, my dear Kolle, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 I am so dreadfully nervous that my hand shakes to 
 such an extent as to prevent my writing a word legibly. 
 
 Dickens lost no time in writing this letter 
 to his intimate friend. It was the shortest 
 way of conveying the news to the Beadnell 
 family that Charley Dickens had become an 
 author. We may be sure that one of the chief 
 causes of his exultation was his knowledge 
 that Maria Beadnell would be impressed. 
 When he wrote to Kolle there was still upon 
 him the agitation which caused him to turn 
 into Westminster Hall because his eyes were 
 not fit to be seen in the street. There was 
 good cause for his emotion; better than he 
 realized ; for Charles Dickens had found him- 
 self. Still ** in the brave days when we are 
 twenty-one" he had arrived. He knew now 
 what was to be his life work, though he had 
 no idea that in a little more than two years he 
 would be the most popular author in England. 
 
 It is probable that in choosing the form for 
 
 [69] 
 
first essays in literature, Dickens was influenced 
 by Wight's Mornings at Bow Street. These 
 sketches first appeared in a newspaper, the 
 Morning Herald. They proved so popular 
 that in 1824 they were published in book form 
 with illustrations by George Cruikshank, some 
 of the best of his small engravings. Three 
 years later, a second series was published, 
 likewise with Cruikshank illustrations. The 
 Sketches by Bo{ were also published in news- 
 papers and magazines ; were collected in book 
 form, illustrated by Cruikshank, and appeared 
 in a second series. The subject matter is 
 similar, — scenes from London life, — and the 
 humor and style have considerable resemblance. 
 The essential difference is that Dickens' sub- 
 jects are general while Wight's are confined to 
 humorous incidents in the police courts. 
 
 The arrangement of the Sketches in book 
 form gives no idea of the order of their com- 
 position and of their publication in the maga- 
 zine. Mrs. Joseph Porter over the Way was 
 the second, appearing in January, 1834. The 
 subject of this sketch is an amateur theatrical 
 performance, and the mischief-making gossip, 
 Mrs. Porter, may be considered a pen portrait 
 of Mrs. John Porter Leigh who in the Bill of 
 
 [70] 
 
Fare is described as " a curry, hot, biting^, and 
 smart." Horatio Sparkins was published in 
 February, 1834, TJm Bloomsbury Christening 
 in April, and The Boarding House in May. As 
 the following letter refers to The Boarding 
 House as being in the hands of the publisher, 
 and as likely to be returned — probably in 
 proof — this letter was written a short time 
 before the appearance of the magazine for 
 May, 18M. 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Monday evening [March or April, 1834]. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — As neither you nor yours have the 
 most remote connection with The Boarding House of 
 which I am the proprietor, I cannot have the least objec- 
 tion to (indeed I shall be flattered by) your perusing; it. 
 It is, however, in the hands of the publisher ; when they 
 return it to me you shall have it. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for purchasing the lottery 
 ticket. I shall call for an hour very soon, when I will kill 
 two birds with one stone and pay you for the " wentur," 
 besides bringing the O'Thello. 1 think if we win we had 
 better sacrifice the discount and take ready money, unless 
 indeed you prefer gold bar. I see by the announcement 
 in the different lottery office windows that the lucky pur- 
 chaser of a ticket may have the value in " money or free- 
 hold houses." Suppose we have ten pound worth of 
 free-hold houses ; of course this will aiford a small street. 
 1 '11 have one side of the way and you shall have the 
 [71] 
 
other. I shall improve my property by the erection of 
 brass knockers and patent water-closets. 
 
 Give my love to Mrs. K., and believe me, my dear 
 
 Kolle, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Henry Kolle, Esq. 
 
 The burlesque O'Tbello, according to Mr. 
 Kitton, was written in 1833. It is rather 
 curious that a performance of Othello is given 
 by the amateurs in the sketch Mrs. Joseph 
 Porter over the Way, a production that the 
 disagreeable Mrs. Porter ( ? Mrs. Leigh) tri- 
 umphantly tells everybody was a complete 
 failure. In this play, a prominent role was 
 assigned to the author's father, John Dickens, 
 who appeared in the character of "The Great 
 Unpaid." There was certainly some personal 
 allusion in this. Perhaps the elder Dick- 
 ens had been having difficulty in collecting 
 his salary, or possibly that may have been his 
 excuse to the family for Micawber-like im- 
 pecuniosity. John Dickens preserved the 
 manuscript of GThello, and, after his son 
 became famous, gave away separate pages of 
 it as souvenirs. The first page was in the 
 collection of Mr. William Wright and was 
 sold at Sotheby's auction rooms in 1899. On 
 
 [72] 
 
the margin was the following: "The Great 
 Unpaid was your humble servant, John 
 Dickens. Aiphington, 6th June, 1842." Mr. 
 S. Dyer Knott, of Aiphington, near Exeter, 
 had another page of this manuscript with 
 John Dickens' endorsement. 
 
 It will be seen that, whatever Dickens ' re- 
 lations with the Beadnell family may have been 
 at this time, he continued on terms of inti- 
 mate friendship with Kolle and his wife. He 
 seems to have set some value upon Kolle's criti- 
 cal opinion and in the following letter makes 
 him the confidant of his literary plans. The 
 "Boarding House referred to in the letter 
 next preceding was the first of the sketches 
 which bore the signature of " Boz," soon to 
 become a household word with the reading 
 public. 
 
 This famous pseudonym was probably in- 
 tended to be pronounced with the " o " long. 
 There is a bit of contemporary verse in which 
 Boz is made to rhyme with "owes." The 
 derivation, too, suggests this. If Dickens 
 adopted it from his own nickname for his 
 brother Augustus, taken from Goldsmith's 
 character of Moses, pronounced through the 
 nose " Bozes 1 " the next transition would 
 [73] 
 
naturally be to " Boze I " The public, how- 
 ever, adopted the more obvious pronunciation. 
 It is not generally known that this brother 
 of the novelist came to America under some- 
 what romantic circumstances. In 1868 he 
 was living in Chicago with a very handsome 
 woman — supposed to be his wife — and two 
 beautiful children. When Dickens visited 
 America in that year, he was announced to 
 give his readings in Chicago. Shortly before 
 the date set, his plans were changed, and it 
 was stated that the health of the novelist 
 would not permit his making so long a 
 journey. The Chicago press resented this 
 and charged Dickens with avoiding that city 
 because he knew that his brother was living 
 there in circumstances which were not par- 
 ticularly affluent. Dickens made answer to 
 this that he was contributing to the support 
 of the only genuine Mrs. Augustus Dickens, 
 who was living in England. A few months 
 later Augustus Dickens died. A short time 
 before the Chicago fire of 1871, the alleged 
 Mrs. Augustus Dickens died and was supposed 
 to have committed suicide. The case attracted 
 considerable attention at the time, partly on 
 account of the great beauty and charm of the 
 
 [74] 
 
two children. They were adopted by Chicagfo 
 people. The great fire occurring shortly after- 
 ward caused the incident to be forgotten. 
 These details were obtained from a member of 
 the writer's family who at the time was living 
 in Chicago and was well acquainted with the 
 facts.^ It may be added that not the slightest 
 censure could justly be passed upon Dickens 
 for his conduct in the matter. He was 
 burdened by the claims of a horde of poor 
 relations, and his liberality to them kept him 
 comparatively poor in spite of his large 
 earnings. 
 
 The next letter to Kolle must have been 
 written in 1834, as it is sent from Bentinck 
 street. Dickens removed from the house in 
 that thoroughfare December 2^, 1834. At 
 the same time, the letter shows that several of 
 the Sketches had appeared in the Monthly Mag- 
 azine. The last of these in 1834 was The 
 Steam Excursion in the October number. 
 They had attracted sufficient attention to 
 warrant pirate publishers in appropriating 
 
 1 Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie, in his much criticised Life of 
 Dickens, alludes to these events, and states that the second wife 
 of Augustus Dickens was "Miss Bertha Phillips, daughter of 
 Charles Phillips, the eminent Irish orator." Dr. Mackenzie gives 
 the date of Augustus Dickens' death, Christmas Day, 1868. 
 [75] 
 
them for the numerous cheap periodicals that 
 did not make it a practice to pay for contri- 
 butions. The Monthly Magazine had lost 
 some of its popularity, and was not upon a 
 solid financial foundation. However, its new 
 editor, James Grant, agreed to pay half-a- 
 guinea a page, the terms proposed by Dickens 
 for the continuation of the Sketches. It is 
 evident that three were paid for at this rate, 
 and then the arrangement proved to be a 
 burden which the magazine could not carry. 
 "Only imagine," wrote Mr. Grant, "Mr. 
 Dickens offering to furnish me with a con- 
 tinuation, for any length of time which 
 I might have named, of his Sketches by 
 Bo{ for eight guineas a sheet, whereas in 
 a little more than six months he could — 
 so great in the interim had his popularity 
 become — have got a hundred guineas a 
 sheet from any of the leading periodicals of 
 the day." 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Friday morning [1834]. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I only returned from my uncle's at 
 
 Norwood (where I have been busily engaged for a week 
 
 past, and whither I return again today) late last night. 
 
 Consequently as they did not forward your note I could 
 
 [76] 
 
not have the pleasure of seeing you on Friday evening, 
 not knowing of your invitation. 
 
 They have done me the honor of selecting my article 
 for insertion in The Thief, where you will see it for the 
 small charge of three pence, if you have not yet paid two 
 and six. 
 
 I have had a polite and flattering communication from 
 the Monthly people requesting more papers, but they are 
 rather backward in coming forward with the needful. I 
 am in treaty with them, however, and if we close, my next 
 paper will be Private Theatricals, and my next Lofi- 
 don by Night. 1 shall then, please God, commence a 
 series of papers (the materials for which I have been noting 
 down for some time past) called The Parish. Should 
 they be successful, as publishing is hazardous, I shall cut 
 my proposed novel up into little magazine sketches. 
 Should I not settle into this periodical, I shall try The 
 Metropolitan. 
 
 As I am not certain how long I shall be detained at 
 Norwood, I cannot say when I can have the pleasure of 
 seeing you. As soon as I return, be it only for a night, 
 however, 1 shall show myself at Newington, and must 
 take the chance of finding you at home. Business in 
 the shape of masses of papers, plans and prospect usses, 
 and pleasure in the shape of a very nice pair of black eyes 
 call me to Norwood ; of course the call is imperative and 
 must be obeyed. 
 
 Pray give my love (I may say so I suppose) to Anne 
 and perhaps you will do me the favor of turning over 
 the following request in your mind. When there is a 
 vacancy for a god -father-ship either to a young lady or 
 a young gentleman, for I am not particular, who could 
 [77] 
 
afford to have one poor god -father, will you bear me in 
 mind ? Hint this delicately to your " missus." 
 Believe me, my dear KoUe, 
 
 Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 More nervous than ever. 
 
 It is evident from this letter that the publi- 
 cation of the Sketches did not follow the 
 order of their composition. Trivate Theatres 
 and London by Night were published after 
 the series of papers called The Parish or Our 
 Parish. No doubt Dickens had been making 
 notes, mental or otherwise, for the Sketches 
 from the beginning of his experiences as a re- 
 porter. Like most beginners in literature, he 
 had on hand a quantity of material from which 
 to select as occasion required. That this was 
 the case with Dickens is shown by the rapid- 
 ity of his production as soon as opportun- 
 ity came to him. Oliver Twist must have 
 been commenced for serial use in Bentlefs 
 Miscellany while the writing of Pickwick was 
 in progress. In fact, only ten of the twenty 
 monthly parts of Pickwick had appeared when, 
 in February, 1837, Oliver Twist began its 
 serial course in Bentley's. It seems incredible 
 that even Dickens could have written two of 
 
the most famous novels in literature, supply- 
 ing serial instalments of both. If he did so, 
 he accomplished a feat which he never at- 
 tempted after he became a more practiced 
 writer. It is not unreasonable to suppose that 
 Oliver Twist was written, in part at least, 
 before Pickwick. In the series of sketches 
 called Our Parish may be found the germ of 
 the former. Bumble is present in all his glory, 
 and there are many indications that Oliver and 
 his associates were in process of evolution. It 
 is true that in the letter the author speaks of 
 The Parish and " my proposed novel " as two 
 distinct works; but this does not disprove 
 that Oliver Twist, or the Parish Bofs Progress 
 was in some manner connected with the Parish 
 sketches. It is possible, however, that "my 
 proposed novel " may have been Gabriel Var- 
 don, the Locksmith of London. 
 
 That Dickens ever projected such a work is 
 known only from the fact that it was adver- 
 tised by Macrone in 1836 as a new novel by 
 the author of Sketches by Bo{. It was Mac- 
 rone who published the Sketches in book form- 
 He continued to advertise Gabriel l/ardon till 
 1837, when his failure in business put a stop 
 to the plans for its publication. This is an in- 
 
 [79] 
 
teresting suggestion, for it is practically certain 
 that Gabriel Vardon was the precursor of Bar- 
 naby Riidge. The connection is not merely 
 one of names. We know how a name in- 
 vented or observed would haunt Dickens. 
 Balzac had the same peculiarity. But the 
 Gabriel Vardon advertised in 18^6, and possi- 
 bly referred to in the foregoing letter of 1834, 
 was a novel dealing with events during the 
 Gordon riots. Mr. Kitton discovered that the 
 name of Gabriel Varden — spelled with an " e," 
 as in Barnaby Rudge — is in the London di- 
 rectory for 1780, the year of the riots. But 
 there is more definite evidence. The pres- 
 ent writer has in his collection a pamphlet 
 (without covers, but with Dickens' book label 
 attached) the title of which is "A plain and 
 Succinct Narrative of the Late Riots and Dis- 
 turbances. . . . With an account of the Com- 
 mitment of Lord George Gordon to the Tower, 
 and anecdotes of his Life. London, 1870." 
 In this work the name of Gabriel Varden ap- 
 pears as that of a shop-keeper whose property 
 was damaged by rioters. From the top of the 
 title-page a signature has been cut, probably 
 that of Dickens. The pamphlet certainly be- 
 longed to him, as the book label proves. Mar- 
 
 [80] 
 
ginal notes in pencil are in a hand-writing 
 resembling his. hi view of these facts, it seems 
 likely that portions of Barnaby Rudge were 
 written before either Pickwick or Oliver Twisty 
 although the first-named novel did not appear 
 in its final form until after Nicholas Nickleby 
 and The Old Curiosity Shop. 
 
 The foregoing letter to Kolle shows how 
 enthusiastic the young author was in the plans 
 and projects resulting from a fair start in the 
 new career that had opened to him. There 
 is evidence, too, of his recovery from the 
 cruel treatment he had received from Maria 
 Beadnell. In the midst of his routine duties 
 as a newspaper writer and his enthusiasm for 
 his literary work, he finds time for " pleasure 
 in the shape of a very nice pair of black eyes." 
 Who the fair one of Norwood may have been 
 is not to be learned. He doubtless hoped that 
 his interest in this "nice pair of black eyes" 
 might be reported by Mrs. Kolle to her sister, 
 the hard-hearted Maria. That Dickens' friend- 
 ship for Kolle was as close as before the latter's 
 marriage is shown by the request made at the 
 end of the letter. 
 
 The following note, written from Bentinck 
 street, in 18M, indicates that the suggestion in 
 
 [811 
 
the last paragraph of the preceding letter may 
 have been adopted. A little Miss Kolle had 
 now appeared upon the scene, and Dickens 
 had been asked to be the child's sponsor in 
 baptism. 
 
 Bentinck Street, 
 Friday Evening. 
 
 Dear Kolle, — I snatch an instant to say that I shall 
 be at the Ball's Pond Chapel, please God, on Sunday 
 next at half past two precisely. 
 Believe me. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 My duty to your good lady. 
 
 The Kolles appear to have lived at Isling- 
 ton at this time. Ball's Pond is in Islington 
 and was so called from the ducking pond of a 
 person named Ball, who conducted a tavern 
 there during the reign of Charles II. 
 
 Dickens wrote his earlier sketches and be- 
 gan his preliminary work as a novelist while 
 living with his parents in the Bentinck street 
 house. His home life seems to have been 
 pleasant, though there is in existence an un- 
 published letter referring to the "damnable 
 shadow" cast by his father. It is impossi- 
 ble to say whether this is an allusion to 
 
 [82] 
 
the erratic habits of the elder Dickens or 
 to his former experience with the " ban-dogs 
 of the law." Late in 18M, the young writer 
 decided to establish a home of his own, and 
 from Christmas of that year he occupied a 
 "three-pair back" at No. 13 Furnival's hin, 
 "modest quarters at the top of a steep and 
 dark staircase." He was at this time nearly 
 twenty-three years old and his regular em- 
 ployment was on the reportorial staff of the 
 Morning Chronicle. The following letter was 
 probably written early in 183^, — 
 
 Furnival's Inn, 
 Wednesday morning. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — As you know of old my excellent 
 good luck in small matters, 1 think it hardly necessary to 
 say that of course I have received a summons from the 
 office this morning, which will, in all probability, detain 
 me the whole evening and consequently prevent my being 
 able to enjoy the pleasure of your society. This is the 
 first I have had since 1 returned from the country, and 
 as a matter of course it interferes with the only engage- 
 ment I had formed. 
 
 Now will you turn over in your own mind what even- 
 ing will suit you best, and just write me a line in the 
 morning in time to prevent my being out, and to enable 
 me to communicate with you in case I should be officially 
 engaged. If you don't do so at once I will be offended. 
 [83] 
 
Give my best love to Henry's Mrs. K., and believe 
 me, dear Kolle, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Dickens lived at No. 13 Furnival's Inn for a 
 year. During this time the editorial powers of 
 the Morning Chronicle recognized the value 
 of the Sketches and increased the writer's sti- 
 pend by an additional two guineas a week. 
 This enabled him to move to more attractive 
 rooms at No. 1^ Furnival's Inn. It has been 
 surmised that these quarters are described in 
 Martin Chti{{lewit as John Westlock's apart- 
 ments. Mr. Kitton has stated that it was 
 at Dickens' rooms at No. 1^ Furnival's Inn 
 that Mr. William Hall called, "on a certain 
 memorable day in the early part of 18^6," to 
 arrange for the writing of Pickwick. There 
 is evidence, however, that this memorable day 
 was in December, 183^. One of the two 
 published letters to Catherine Hogarth informs 
 her of the negotiations with Chapman & Hall, 
 and this is dated 183^. Some time was lost 
 in discussion of the precise character of the 
 projected work. The manuscript of the first 
 monthly part must have been delivered to the 
 publishers about March 1st, and it was prob- 
 
 [84] 
 
ably written during the month of February, 
 1836. To the latter date belongs the following 
 letter in the collection of the present writer, 
 and now first printed. Although only a brief 
 note, it is the earliest known Dickens auto- 
 graph referring to Pickwick by name, and in 
 it the author coins a word — "Pickwickian" 
 — which he afterward used so effectively that 
 it has become a part of the language.— 
 
 FuRNivAL's Inn, 
 Thursday Evening. 
 
 Dear Sirs, — Pickwick is at length beg-un in all his 
 might and glory. The first chapter will be ready to- 
 morrow. 
 
 1 want to publish The Strange Gentleman. If you 
 have no objection to doing it, I should be happy to let 
 you have the refusal of it. I need not say that nobody 
 else has seen or heard of it. 
 
 Believe me (in Pickwickian haste). 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 Messrs. Chapman & Hall. 
 
 The Strange Gentleman was not per- 
 formed until September 29th, I836, at which 
 time six monthly parts of Pickwick had ap- 
 peared. From this letter we learn that it was 
 written before Pickwick. 
 
 It was while living in his first quarters in 
 [85] 
 
Furnival's Inn that Dickens became friendly 
 with George Hogarth, one of the writers on 
 the Chronicle staff. Hogarth's three daugh- 
 ters were destined to play important parts in 
 the life drama of the novelist ; one as his ideal 
 of girlhood, the original of some of his most 
 beloved characters ; one as his most loyal and 
 devoted woman friend ; one as the mother of 
 his nine children, the wife of whom he de- 
 clared, twenty-five years later, that if they 
 continued to live together they would drive 
 each other insane. 
 
 There are no more early letters to Kolle and 
 the probability is that Dickens' intimacy with 
 that friend (and with the social circle in which 
 the Kolle and Beadnell families moved) ceased 
 at about the time he became interested in the 
 Hogarth family. After his sensational success 
 as the author of Pickwick Dickens formed 
 friendships with some of the leading writers, 
 artists and actors of the period. These were 
 more congenial to his taste and temperament 
 than the worthy but conventional folk of the 
 Lombard street coterie. Dickens was not the 
 sort of man to allow success to make him 
 ignore old friends; but ambition and a new 
 environment bring diflferent interests and 
 [86] 
 
associates. Twenty-five years passed before 
 Dickens again wrote to his old friend. Dur- 
 ing tliat period the noveh'st created his most 
 famous works. Fame and fortune had done 
 what they could to make him what he had 
 declared in an early letter he could never be, 
 "happy and contented." Kolle had been re- 
 garded as a promising young man at a time 
 when Dickens had been considered an ineligi- 
 ble suitor, but it appears that Kolle had not 
 prospered during the quarter of a century 
 which had brought honor and a moderate 
 fortune to his old friend. Kolle must have 
 died poor, for his widow and daughter were 
 glad to obtain a few guineas by the sale of 
 Dickens' autographs. It is inferred from the 
 contents of the following letter that the two 
 old friends had rarely met in the intervening 
 years. Apparently Kolle's letter in 18?9 was 
 a voice from the past, like the letter from 
 Maria Beadnell in 18^^. Kolle's daughter 
 (perhaps the one for whom Dickens had stood 
 sponsor in baptism in 18^^) had literary 
 aspirations and, undeterred by the previous 
 achievements of Voltaire and Southey, had 
 written a poem on the subject of ''Joan of 
 Arc." Kolle sent the manuscript to Dickens 
 
 [87] 
 
either for his personal opinion or as a contri- 
 bution to the periodical of which the novelist 
 was the editor. 
 
 Gadshill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent, 
 
 Saturday, tSth June, 1859. 
 
 Dear Kolle, — It is an extremely difficult thing to 
 pronounce on the qualifications of any writer or anyone 
 aspiring to be a writer, with only one youthful composi- 
 tion to guide the judgment. 
 
 I have read Joan of Arc attentively and all I can do 
 is to tell you faithfully what impression it has left upon 
 me. A facility of versification is certainly to be observed 
 in it, though it has very many weak and lame lines ; but 
 it seems to me to stop at turning prose into rhyme, and I 
 don't see much good in that. When I say this I mean 
 that I do not find the writer to see the story poetically, 
 or to place any scene in it vividly, through the aid of a 
 bright and picturesque imagination, before the reader. 
 
 After laying the piece down I do not remember any 
 thought in it, any fancy, any image, any little touch of 
 description that gives me the least notion connected with 
 the story of which I was not already possessed. I do not 
 believe that the way to success, recompense or happiness 
 in composition lies through such a portal, and unless the 
 writer can do much better, my advice to her is to leave it 
 alone ; but she may be able to do better, and considered 
 as an amateur lady-composition, this is very good. 
 
 I understand you, however, to wish to know whether 
 this is something beyond such a composition ? I think 
 not. In remembrance of the old days to which you so 
 [88] 
 
feelingly refer in your note, and which are no less dear 
 to me, do not hesitate to write to me again on this sub- 
 ject, if you should see reason for doing so, and pray as- 
 sure your daughter that I am not a dragon, but that I tell 
 her the truth as her father's old friend should. 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 Henry Kolle, Esq. 
 
 Six years later other poems by Miss Kolle 
 were sent by her father to Dickens, who then 
 wrote for the last time to his old friend. 
 
 Gad's Hill Place, 
 Tuesday, Dec. 6, I865. 
 
 My dear Kolle, — I have not marked the accompany- 
 ing copy of your daughter's verses because the little that 1 
 have to say about them may be best said generally. They 
 are very musical, very creditable, very good. As editor 
 of a periodical I read many much worse, and many much 
 better. As a composition of a young lady in private life 
 they are interesting and meritorious; but I cannot do 
 such violence to what I believe to be the truth as to en- 
 courage a sensitive young creature to enter the public 
 lists so armed. Great disappointment and, consequently, 
 great unhappiness would result from such a rash venture. 
 There may be promise in your daughter not expressed 
 by these verses. Judging her solely by their internal 
 evidence, I find her on a level with hundreds and thou- 
 sands of unheard-of amateurs. There is a curious ex- 
 pression of conscious weakness in every page but one. 
 The purpose that cannot express itself in words without 
 [89] 
 
italicising them is waited on by a misgiving that it wants 
 force and struggles for expression in vain. If the lines 
 were my own daughter's, 1 should tell her exactly what 
 I tell you. 
 
 When I got to Paris on that occasion to which you 
 refer, I carried out my part of our contract as heartily as 
 I now send all good Christmas wishes to you and yours. 
 My dear Kolle, 
 
 Faithfully yours always, 
 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 These two letters are striking evidence of 
 Dickens' characteristic honesty, kindness and 
 loyalty. An unwelcome verdict could scarcely 
 be written in terms more considerate. The 
 same frankness and firmness appear in the 
 later letters to Mrs. Winter; and we see re- 
 vealed in all of them "the good, the gentle, 
 high-gifted, ever-friendly, noble Dickens," as 
 Carlyle said of him, "every inch of him an 
 honest man." 
 
 [90] 
 
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